Asset Series 1: Hallowed Ground
by shadowglove
Summary: Lois just wanted to help her traumatized younger cousin forget about the attack that'd left her scarred, both mentally and physically. Dean just wanted to get away for a while and wrap his head around his little brother choosing a normal life and Stanford over their family. Neither of them expected what they were getting into when they arrived in Hope. Friendshipfic Lois n Dean POV
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Supernatural...or Hallowed Ground.**

Chapter 1/7

Ages of main characters in this story:

Lois Lane - 18

Chloe Sullivan - 14

Dean Winchester - 22

**This is a FRIENDSHIP fic.**

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Chloe was having a nightmare again.

Sending her young cousin a sideways glance, Lois reached over and shook her shoulder while returning her gaze towards the road. "Wake up hon, it's only a nightmare."

Chloe's eyes half-opened before they closed once more and she fell right back to sleep.

Sighing, Lois shook her head and tried a different radio station, wondering what sort of music would promote better dreams when heard by a sleeping teenager. Her lil cousin hadn't been sleeping well at all, her every sleeping moment a continuous nightmare. Lois herself had taken to sleeping as little as possible, only as much as needed. They'd all hoped that this road trip way from everyone and everything that could remind the blonde of the traumatizing experience she'd lived through would be a good change for her, but so far Lois couldn't see that Chloe was doing any better. She lied to uncle Gabe every time she could sneak him a phone call during Chloe's few sleeping hours before the nightmares set in, but Lois was getting more and more worried. The brunette didn't want the fourteen year old to be put on meds, but she was fearing that if things didn't start getting better that was exactly what would happen.

Then again, Lois knew that she couldn't have ever gone through what the girl had and not be scarred.

"No..." Chloe whimpered, apparently having returned to her nightmare. "No...No...Please!"

"_Chloe_." Lois reached over once more, keeping her gaze on the road, easing off of it and parking her car, putting on her emergency lights so no one would run into them.

Not that there'd been traffic in either direction for miles now, but it was better to be overly prepared than caught off-guard.

"No! Stop! Please! No! _PLEASE_!" Chloe was screaming, tears racing down her pale cheeks, fighting with her memories. "Don't do this! You're hurting me!"

"Chloe!" Unhooking her seatbelt, Lois leaned over and grabbed at Chloe's hands, which were flailing around in front of her as she tried to defend herself. "Chloe wake up! It's a nightmare! You're safe!"

Screaming, Chloe's eyes flew open as she shot forwards in the leaned back seat, clawing at her shirt. "Its still in me!"

"It's not in you honey." Lois fought hard not to cry, to be strong. "It was just a nightmare."

"No, I felt it! It's there! It's still there!" Chloe had ripped a couple of buttons off her shirt in her terrified haste, her urgency dying down slightly when her hands came into contact with the two intersecting scars over her heart. "It-it was a nightmare-of course it was a nightmare." Her hands were trembling as they traced the slightly raised, still healing scars that would forever mar her chest. "It wasn't real-I-it's not-I'm not-it was a nightmare."

Lois hated herself for being weak as a tear made its way down her cheek as she pulled her stammering, shivering baby cousin into her arms. "You're okay. You're safe."

Now that she was awake Chloe didn't cry, she never did, it was only when she was asleep caught up in the horrors of her memories that she screamed and cried and begged for help, for it to stop, for compassion, for her life. The fourteen year old was lifeless in Lois' hold, not refusing the comfort the older woman offered, yet seeming unable to reach out for her as well. She was always like this after a nightmare, or an episode, numb and silent, withdrawn. It filled Lois with fury to see the shell of a girl her cheeky, lively, vivacious cousin had become.

"_Sorry_." Chloe whispered, broken. "I've been no fun this whole trip."

"Don't be silly," Lois held tighter her to her. "I'm grateful you came with me."

"This was supposed to be your big graduation trip, you've been looking forwards to this all year, and now you're babysitting me because everyone's afraid I'm not strong enough to handle this." Chloe whispered, voice hoarse from having screamed so much in her sleep. "I'm really sorry."

"I wanted you to come with me before all of this happen, you know that's true because I invited you." Lois took in a deep breath as she pressed a kiss to the girl's forehead. "We're going to have a good time and you are _not_ going to let this ruin yourself because even if you don't believe it right now, you're stronger than this."

The girl remained silent, but at least she moved her hand and grabbed hold of the hem of Lois' shirt, breaking the routine of her immobility during these episodes.

Lois counted it as progress, slowly pulling away. "It'll soon be morning, why don't we have breakfast at the next town and actually _plan_ our next stop? I'm sure The World's Biggest _something_ is somewhere around here."

"The World's Biggest Yarn Ball really wasn't as a big as I'd thought it would be." Chloe was trying, thank the gods she was _trying_.

Lois smiled at the brave girl, returning to lean against her own seat. "I agree."

"Maybe there's a Worlds Biggest Crystal Ball or something." Chloe shrugged.

Hmmm, Lois would have to look into that one. "Imagine the sun hitting _that_ baby."

Chloe leaned against her own seat, breathing in and out, a hand softly covering her scarred heart. "What's the name of the next town?"

"Hope." Lois replied, fastening her seatbelt once more.

"Hope." Chloe whispered, gazing ahead of them as Lois pulled back onto the empty road.

"Hope." Lois echoed, knowing that that was exactly what they needed right now.

Maybe this was a good sign.

This could be the turning point.

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Hope.

That was a presumptuous name if there ever was one.

What genius stood in the middle of what appeared to be yet another shithole town in the middle of Nowhere USA and decided to name it _that_?

Then again, it could just be his bad mood talking.

Taking another swig of his beer, Dean didn't even have it in him to flirt with the older yet not unattractive waitress in the town's diner.

Sammy had bolted out them.

He'd packed his bags and when given the choice between life with or without them in it, he hadn't even hesitated. The eighteen year old had knocked shoulders angrily with his father on his way out and there hadn't been a phone call from him despite two weeks having passed. Of course dad had gone all hard-ass and acted as if he didn't care, but Dean hadn't been able to do the same, and that was why he was glad when his father had gone to help Caleb with a job and left Dean on his own.

He needed this time to himself, to adjust to having lost his brother to _Stanford_.

It was why he'd been touring all the backwater towns, looking for a job, or at least just something to pass the time and keep his mind off of the family shit.

A preppy blonde emerged from the bathroom, fitting just his type, and yet he didn't even have it in him to return her flirtatious smile.

With his back to the wall, he drank his beer and ignored the locals, who were somewhat creepy. Apparently there weren't too many newcomers who passed this way, and the people just kept _staring_ at him and the blonde, though he could feel that they didn't quite like the blonde very much for some reason. Hell, maybe they knew her, but the way she dressed and held herself said city slicker..._not_ a local.

The bell above the door rang as it opened, and he gazed up to see two young girls walk into the diner.

They definitely weren't locals either.

One, the eldest, was brunette with dark eyes which could be hazel or brown, had dark lipstick on and dark clothes. She wore jeans and a dark brown hoodie unzipped at the front to reveal a tight green spaghetti shirt and dogtag necklace. Combat boots and attitude. She cased the joint with one view, taking everyone in quickly, seeming to be scanning everyone as if they posed some sort of threat. Her stance was protective, defensive, and her body tense, as if ready to strike should the need come.

It intrigued him.

Was she a hunter?

Did she know about a hunt nearby?

And yet, she looked too young to be a hunter who had a job on her own without an older mentor.

The brunette brought her hand down on her companion's shoulder and whispered something to her.

Dean's hazel gaze shifted to the companion and his frown grew as he took in the even younger girl. She was maybe thirteen, had blonde hair that was up in a messy bun, and green eyes that were way too old and horribly haunted for a kid her age. She was pale, with dark bags under her eyes, and she seemed to be a lifeless doll, staring around her without much emotion on her face before answering the older girl with a smile that was obviously forced and for the other girl's benefit.

In their own way, they were each trying to protect the other.

It reminded him of how he and Sammy used to be.

The townspeople made no move to hide how fascinated they were the second the girls entered the diner, some of them even turning in their seats to stare at them.

Dean frowned, watching.

Something just seemed off.

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"So...anything catch your interest?" Lois asked as she gazed at the menu the extremely friendly waitress had passed them.

"You mean _other_ than the fact that everyone's staring at us as if we're some sort of alien life form that came down in a spaceship instead of your beat-up mustang?" Chloe wanted to know, not looking up from her menu either. "I'm not really hungry."

"Yeah, well, you're not getting away with not eating so find something." Lois replied, reaching out and grabbing a packet of sugar, flicking it against the table in a nervous tick she needed to get over.

To be truthful, the townspeople were kinda freaky.

Ever since they'd driven into Hope as the morning's rays touched the sky, people had stopped walking or doing whatever they were doing to just _watch_ them as they drove through trying to look for a place to have breakfast. And even now people watched them from outside, and some inside were still ignoring their own food so they could look at them.

Chloe brought her hand over her heart once more in what seemed like an unconscious gesture, a slight wince taking over her features.

"It's hurting again?" Lois put down her menu, worried.

"It's fine, the doctor says that it's ghost pains-like my mind tricking me into believe that it's happening again and thus my nerve ends react and I feel pain when I really shouldn't." Chloe sighed, refusing to meet her gaze. "It's like my nightmares. They're not really happening-but my mind screws with my body and makes it believe it is." She chuckled in derision. "At least it's not a panic attack-not that I'd have anything to vomit even if it were."

There was nothing she could say to that, so Lois returned her gaze to her menu, although her mind was on her cousin as always.

"Well, what will you two ladies like to order?" The waitress asked, a cheery smile on her face.

Lois cleared her throat. "I'll have the pancakes and eggs with beacon, and a coffee, black."

The waitress smiled brightly at her, before shaking her head as if to remind herself that Chloe was there as well, turning to her. "And you?"

"Cheese omelet with toast and a coffee as well, milk...please." Chloe folded her menu back and gave it back to the woman with a forced smile.

The woman nodded before turning to smile at Lois and take her menu as well, heading towards the kitchen to relay their orders.

Suddenly a blonde propped herself down on the seat next to Chloe, all in pink and bubbly. "Hi, I'm Sarah Austen."

Chloe eyed her curiously. "Chloe Sullivan."

Lois sighed. "Lois Lane."

A couple of the people began to whisper once her name was uttered.

"So did car trouble land you here in Hope?" Sarah asked, inquisitive and eager.

Without the slight irritating peppiness she reminded Lois of what Chloe used to be like before...well...before.

"Nope." Lois shook her head, gazing around the the diner once more before returning to the woman sitting next to her cousin. "We're just touring our great country."

"This place isn't really a tourist trap." Sarah stated the obvious, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. "Unless you're here because of the legend."

"Legend?" Chloe looked up from the knife she'd been tapping against the table. "What legend?"

For the first time in a very long time Lois caught a glimpse of her little cousin, the real one, not the hollow shell she'd been for far too long.

"It's why I'm here." Sarah turned more towards Chloe, smiling brightly, realizing the genuine interest in those green eyes. "You see, I'm a reporter and I'm here covering the legend for my paper."

Chloe's eyes widened further, staring at the woman as if she were an angel. "I want to be a reporter, when I graduate."

"No way! That's awesome!" Sarah grinned widely, reaching into her purse and pulling out what was her state's version of the Inquisitor, the front page swearing that a terrorist pretzel had nearly killed the president.

"And here I thought that stuff was made up." Lois eyed the front.

Chloe's enthusiasm died a little at the realization of _what_ sort of newspaper Sarah worked at, and yet it didn't die down completely, and that was all that mattered. "What's this local legend you were saying earlier?"

"Okay, this is going to rock your socks off." Sarah turned even more towards Chloe, hands moving animatedly as she spoke. "Hope was founded in the late 1800's by a preacher named Jonas Hathaway. He was a real old fire and brimstone fanatic."

The waitress brought them their food, completely ignoring Sarah as she left.

Sarah ignored her. "Hathaway had incredible luck with his crops and even in times of draught the town never ran dry. Some claimed that it was because the town was built on hallowed ground." She smirked. "And then he began having trouble with crows eating his crops so he put up scarecrows to keep them away. That worked for a while until the crows got smart, and then Hathaway began to _poison_ them."

Lois waited for the story to get good.

Sarah leaned forwards, lowering her voice only a little, though not enough for the whole diner not to hear her. "Hathaway believed the crows were sent by the devil to destroy the town's livelihood."

Lois flinched at the "d" word.

"Is this a very pious town then?" Chloe interrupted.

"Huh?" Sarah turned towards her.

"If the devil is going to send demons in the form of crows, or even just control crows, he'd have to have a very good reason for it, wouldn't he?" The blonde was tapping the knife against the table again in her own nervous tell, face serious. "And I don't see him taking time out of torturing and whatever he does, to do that, if Hope wasn't important somehow. Or just plain annoying."

Sarah suddenly grinned. "I like you!"

Lois reached for her utensils, eyeing her cousin. "Eat."

Chloe rolled her eyes but did as told, though her gaze never left Sarah. "So what happened next?"

"He gathered up the people of Hope in the church and preached about how Satan's spawn had come to destroy their harvest, to destroy their livelihood, and it was up to them to cast them out. He preached that sacrifices had to be made to the Lord to protect them. He was _desperate_. So he began to sacrifice the town's sinners to appease his god." Sarah was obviously enjoying this storytelling. "He would dress his victims up like scarecrows and nail them up in his fields. Alive."

"That's disgusting." Lois swallowed, making a face.

"It makes sense though." Chloe mumbled, swallowing her own bite. "If they were screaming they'd scare the crows away and keep the crops safe...and in the end...that was what he really wanted. A scarecrow that served its purpose."

"_Exactly_." Sarah reached out and ruffled Chloe's hair affectionately. "One night though, Hathaway has a vision, and it tells him that the world is coming to an end."

"Oh, this never ends well." Lois muttered, returning to attention to her breakfast.

"Hathaway has his followers build this shelter underneath his fields, and wait for the world to end." Sarah continued. "After a while the congregation decide to send up a kid to see if the world has really ended. And this kid runs all the way to Liberty, the next town. All she's supposed to do is see if there's anyone still alive...but instead she tells the people of Liberty _everything_. So the men of Liberty go to Hathaway's farm and then the drag him out of the shelter. And then they nailed _him_ up on a post in the field...just like he had done to his victims." Sarah's smile was twisted. "And then they burned him alive."

Lois drank her coffee, shaking her head.

"Rumor has it that nothing grows on the spot where they buried his ashes." Sarah's voice lowered dramatically. "Some people think the fire freed Hathaway's spirit from his flesh, allowing him to reside in the field just...waiting." She then leaned back, shrugging. "Anyway, I figure I'll go down to Hathaway's farm and take some pictures and see if I get any weird vibes."

"Can we come?" Chloe asked immediately.

Lois choked on her coffee.

"You really wanna come?" Sarah smiled.

"Yeah." Chloe nodded, her smile a little more genuine. "It sounds _much_ more interesting than the World's Largest Ball of Yarn." She turned to Lois, begging. "Please? Can we go? _Please_?"

Lois stared at her cousin, and considering she hadn't seen her this animated in a very long time she couldn't help but give a half-smile and nod. "Sure, why not? But you have to finish everything on your plate first."

"_Deal_." Chloe smiled a little wider, turning to Sarah. "Do you really believe his spirit might be there or are you like those astrologists who don't believe their own press?"

Sarah paused, considering the question. "I'm undecided, honestly, but I'm attracted to the odd and unexplainable so I enjoy trying to find out."

Chloe nodded, seeming to apparently accept that answer.

Lois ate her breakfast in silence, just listening to Chloe and Sarah talk more about Hathaway and the legend, and she couldn't help but sigh. After what had happened she had thought that her cousin's taste for the paranormal and odd would have died, but thankfully the attack hadn't killed that part of her.

She wondered if she could find anymore paranormal-oriented tourist attractions on their road trip.

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Dean frowned as he watched the peppy blonde leave to go get her car. He hadn't heard about this legend of Crazy Preacher Hathaway before, and considering he'd finished reading the newspaper and hadn't heard of any suspicious deaths it could mean that it was all just baloney, but the hunter in him wouldn't let him take the risk of it being real and three girls getting hurt. He'd have to check the place out himself and see if there was anything to the legends. The problem was that he didn't know where it was, and that meant he'd have to weasel his way into this outing with the girls or look like a stalker following them from the diner to some remote location.

He stood and headed towards the door as the waitress informed the dark haired girl that her bill had been 'taken care off', refusing the money she was holding up.

Shaking his head, getting creeped and even more suspicious by the minute, Dean exited the diner and took in a deep breath before putting on his best smile as he walked up to where the girl was sitting in her pink car, checking her makeup. "Hello."

Her eyes widened when she saw him, and she smiled. "Hey handsome."

"I couldn't help but overhearing your conversation in there," he maintained eye-contact, smiling. "I have to say, usually that sort of paranormal shit doesn't float my boat but you made it sound really interesting...I'd love to read your article on the Hathaway farm whenever it comes out."

"That's so sweet!" She giggled. "I'm Sarah."

"Dean."

"Would you like to come with us? We're going there right now." Sarah offered, just as he'd hoped she would. "We could use some _male protection_."

"I'd love to." He let his smirk go naughty.

She bit her bottom lip, responding to it.

The door opened and closed behind behind him and two voices could be heard talking to each other in hisses.

"_Who paid for our meal_?" It was the younger girl.

"_I don't know but that was creepy_." The older one mumbled.

"_What's creepy is that they're still staring at us from the window...and across the street too_."

"Hey guys!" Sarah waved them closer. "This is Dean, he'll be coming with us. Dean, these are Lois and Chloe."

"Hello." He turned his smile on them, knowing how to charm women.

Lois didn't smile back, if anything she frowned at him. "How do we know you're not a psycho killer waiting to get us to a remote location and kill us?"

"_Lois_!" Sarah gasped in horror. "She doesn't mean that!"

"Oh, she does." Lois responded.

Dean's smile went more genuine as he recognize the mama-bear protectiveness emanating from her every pore as she kept herself a step ahead of Chloe, and slightly in front of her, her body language protective to its core.

He could understand that protectiveness.

And respect it.

"I'm not." He responded.

She must have read something from him because she stood down from the fight her body-langauge had assured him she was all too ready to engage in should the need arise. "_Fine_. But we're taking our car."

"And I'm taking mine." Dean nodded, his gaze going to Chloe, who was mute by her cousin's side. "Hey."

Those green eyes _hurt_ to have upon him.

What exactly had happened to this kid?

"_Hey_." She whispered back.

"Well, let's get this party started!" Sarah was peppy as ever.

The other three stared at each other before nodding and heading to their respective vehicles.

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**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Supernatural...or Hallowed Ground.**

Chapter 2/7

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"I'm not too sure about this, she seems _flighty_." Lois tapped her fingers against the steering wheel as they trailed behind Sarah and Dean's cars. "She just invited these strangers to some remote place where murders allegedly took place and-how do we know this isn't some sort of a trap? Her and this Dean fellow could be in on it together. You know, like a murdering Bonnie and Clyde." She tightened her grip on the steering wheel. "I say we let some distance get between us and then we high tail it out of here and to somewhere where I'm not afraid someone's gonna jump out of the bushes and..."

Chloe gazed out of the window. "If I wasn't here you would be jumping at this opportunity."

"That's not true." Lois countered.

"Uncle Sam calls dad to vent, remember that. I know all about the dangerous stuff you've done without a second's thought." She leaned her forehead against the glass. "It's because of what happened to me that you're not enjoying yourself and taking risks like you always do."

"Maybe I've matured. I _am_ eighteen you know." Lois defended herself with a pout.

"Maybe I should just go home." Chloe commented softly. "I'm ruining your trip and it's not like I'm getting any better." She pressed her hand against the glass. "Maybe I should be locked up in some psych ward fully medicated."

"Don't you _dare_ say that!" Lois hissed, banging the heel of her palm into the steering wheel. "Don't you ever fucking say that again you hear me?"

Chloe jumped at the venom in Lois' voice, turning to look at her eyes wide, before nodding.

"_Good_." Lois announced as they drove passed a scarecrow and into a road between two huge fields of corn on either side.

They drove in silence for the next twenty minutes, nothing but unending, towering cornfields on either side.

The brunette's conscious killed her for having screamed at the kid, but she refused to let the blonde think that way. That was defeatist way of thinking and Lois wasn't about to let her cousin give up. Not when her life was just beginning.

It killed Lois to see Chloe this way. The blonde was usually tough and vivacious and with a cunning smile on her lips. She was always the first to lead out in a prank or adventure.

Lois remembered crying when she was a kid and her mother had died and her little sister Lucy shipped off to Europe to some fancy boarding school. She remembered feeling alone, feeling resentful for having to stay with her father, who was married to his job and had a family in his soldiers. Not her. She felt ignored and unneeded. She'd felt like an orphan, especially when Lucy's letters and calls started growing less and less frequent, her sister growing used to her new life and preferring it and her friends over home and her family. Over her sister.

It was Chloe who'd helped Lois at that time. She'd been there. She'd called. She'd written. She'd visited...and asked the General for permission for Lois to come and visit _her_.

The blonde had made Lois' days fun and interesting, and that first night she'd snuck into the bed when she'd heard Lois sniffling. She'd curled her fingers through Lois' and whispered how she'd always wished she'd had a sister.

And from that night on she'd had one.

Lois was closer to Chloe than her own sister, felt a more sisterly, protective connection to her than to the girl in Europe who she only got birthday and christmas cards from...or to the father who knew his soldiers better than he knew her.

Chloe was her family.

Her only family.

And that was why she wasn't ever going to stop fighting to get her back.

"I'm sorry." Lois finally sighed, unable to keep silent anymore. "I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"No, I needed that." Chloe snorted, shaking her head. "It's been driving me crazy-the way everyone's been walking on eggshells around me since..._this_." She placed her hand over her heart. "I know I should be dead right now, but I don't know...I can't explain it...a part of me did die and I need to remember sometimes that I'm not fully dead." She pursed her lips. "Apparently, shouting and cursing at me works."

Lois felt her lips twitched. "I did curse at you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you're a real potty mouth you know that? Saying such words to one as innocent as me." Chloe was teasing her...she was honest to god _teasing_ her.

Lois' smile grew. "You know, if I'd known that this would be what it took to get you to tease me, I'd have cursed you out ages ago."

Chloe chuckled before her eyes went wide and she sat up straighter. "Oh wow, that's creepy."

Lois returned her gaze to the road to see that they were approaching a two story, wooden house in great need of repair. It was obviously abandoned, had been for a very long time, and crows were all around it, just adding to the creep-factor of it all.

They drove up and parked next to Sarah and Dean's vehicles, getting out in time to hear Dean muttering something about the place needing to be bulldozed.

"The town can't touch this place, it's a historic landmark." Sarah announced as she took pictures of the house and the crows, excitement in her every movement. "It's the first house ever built in Hope." She gave a little giggle. "This is terrific!"

Lois sent Chloe a look for the blonde to stay close, as she gazed around her at the crows, which seemed to be gathering around them, watching.

Never had Lois liked crows in her life, associating them with all the horror movies she'd been forced to watch with Chloe, but the creatures freaked her out even more right now as they stared at them with their beady little eyes.

"You _do_ realize though, that if the devil really sent the crows, it means he could be watching us now." Chloe muttered, staring up at a crow who seemed to stare right back at her with deep intensity.

"The devil doesn't exist." Lois snapped, having worried about this.

Dean frowned darkly as he gazed at the crows. "Devil or not, these birds are freakin' intense."

"My editor is gonna eat this all up!" Sarah was ignoring them, skipping up the creaky steps to the front door, trying the doorknob.

The door fell open inside of the house.

The sound caused Lois and Chloe to jump, and Dean to face Sarah...but the crows didn't even blink.

"Oh my god! This is gonna be the _awesome_! I don't need to do any prepping in the house at all! It's spooky all on its own!" Sarah rejoiced from inside, the sound of her camera taking pictures echoing loudly.

The crows were watching them intently, not moving.

"I think we should go inside." Dean announced behind them.

Lois nodded, placing her hand around Chloe's shoulder and ushering her towards the house.

The second they turned their backs on the crows the birds started making a hellish racket which honestly chilled Lois to the bone. She was relieved to have Dean behind them in case the birds decided to go into a murderous frenzy.

And inside the house the feeling wasn't any better.

It was littered with religious paraphernalia and dust. There were pictures of Jesus with a crown of thorns, blood dripping down his face, and an agonized expression. The crosses were everywhere and huge. They were slightly odd, though she couldn't figure out what about the crosses bothered her. She kept an eye on Chloe out of the corner of her eye, making sure her cousin was always in her range of sight as they inspected the house.

"What makes the ground this town has been built on hallowed ground?" Chloe asked, reaching out to pick up a small statue of a young pregnant woman, who was most probably the virgin Mary.

"Huh?" Sarah was busy taking pictures.

"You said this town was built on hallowed ground." Chloe declared, staring at the statue almost as if in a trance. "What made it hallowed?"

Dean sent her a look, frowning slightly. "Well, from what I know, it's hallowed when it's dedicated to a god or a purpose. It's why the land on which a church is upon is usually called hallowed ground."

Lois turned to look at Dean in surprise. He didn't look like the type who would know stuff like that.

"Huh," Chloe put the statue back, wiping her hands against her jeans-clad hips.

Suddenly realizing something, Lois frowned and walked to a window, staring out. "The crows have stopped cawing."

It was eerily silent.

Dean joined her at the window, staring out as well, eyes narrowed. "Where did they go?"

She took this moment to send him a sideways glance, admitting that despite her distrust he was incredibly handsome. He was tall and muscular, yet not too much of either, and had sandy blonde hair with hazel eyes which had a hint more of green than they did of brown. He also seemed alert, his stance reminding her of the soldiers whom her father had trained at the many bases she'd called home during her lifetime. She wondered if Dean had served in the army.

"See something you like?" He asked, lips smirking, gaze still outside.

"I'm trying to figure out your reason for being here." Lois responded truthfully, not trying to hide the fact that she was looking at him anymore since he'd seen through her previous attempt. Then again, with a face like his, he was probably used to being looked at. "Sarah's here for her job, I'm here because my cousin considers the supernatural and weird her life's calling...but you? I don't get why _you_ are here."

"I overheard what Sarah was telling you, it sounded interesting." He shrugged, smile slipping from his lips, gaze still outside...where the multitude of crows had completely disappeared. "Sounded like something I'd enjoy."

"But you're not enjoying it." She pointed out, resisting the urge to point at his tense face for emphasis. "You're _wary_, worried even. And from the bulge in the back of your jacket and the way you keep looking around I'd say you have a piece on you and are worried you might have to use it...and yet for some reason I highly doubt you're planning on using it on _us_."

Dean finally tore his gaze from the window and placed it on her, expression grave.

"You know what we should do?" Sarah turned towards them nearly jumping with excitement. "We should find where he's buried!"

"You've got to be joking." Lois frowned as she turned towards her, opening her mouth to tell them that she and Chloe had seen enough and were going to leave...when she realized that while her back had been turned her cousin had disappeared. "Chloe? Chloe! Where are you?"

"She probably just went to check upstairs." Sarah rolled her eyes, returning to taking pictures. "Relax. She's not a little baby you know. Let her live a little."

Lois wanted to smack the woman.

"I'll check outside." Dean surprised her by announcing, stalking out of the house with confident yet hurried strides, obviously not as at ease with the place as Sarah was.

Shaking her head at the blonde, Lois took the stairs and hurried up the steps two at a time. "Chloe?" She went through the rooms, calling for her cousin's name yet not finding her anywhere, hearing Dean calling for Chloe outside and thus proving that he hadn't found her either.

Panic began to set in as she reached the last room and Lois cursed softly as she kicked at the bed. It seemed to be the master bedroom, but unlike the other rooms the window was boarded up with plywood, leaving her no visibility.

"Lois!" Dean yelled from outside. "I think she's in the cornfield!"

"_What_?" Lois hissed, hurrying out of the room and down the stairs, nearly missing the last step but somehow keeping balanced as she hurried passed Sarah and out the front door, finding Dean staring off to the looming cornfield on their left. "Did you see her?"

"No...but the crows are there." He turned towards her, eyes narrowed. "Something doesn't seem right though, does it? Does your cousin usually run off like this on her own?"

"Yes." Lois growled, starting off into the cornfield, ignoring Dean's call for her to wait for them, that it wasn't safe to split up. "Chloe!" She ignored Dean's yell for Sarah to come out so they could follow, ignored his yell to _her_ that she could get lost. "CHLOE!"

Her traumatized little cousin was somewhere in the cornfield and Lois wasn't going to rest until she'd reached her side.

And then she'd curse every word in the book.

Pushing through the towering corn, Lois followed the sound of the crows, ignoring everything but them, and suddenly she broke through the corn and stumbled upon a large patch of earth in which nothing grew. Everything was dead in it, yellow and eerie.

The crows were on the corn and such, gazing at the circle of dead earth.

And there, in the middle of it, was Chloe.

"You are in so much trouble young lady!" Hating how _old_ she seemed right then, Lois reached her cousin's side and grabbed her arm. "Why did you run off like that? It isn't safe! I was worried!"

Chloe didn't answer her, staring up at something.

Huffing, Lois looked up as well and her eyes widened as she realized that before them was the most gruesome scarecrow she'd ever seen in her entire life. "Oh _fuck_."

"Do you think it's a person?" Chloe asked softly.

The thought sickened Lois to the core and she took a step backwards, pulling her cousin with her. "They were just stories, Chloe, they aren't real."

"So it won't be a problem if I climb up there and remove the mask then." Chloe muttered, take a step towards the monstrosity.

"_No_." Lois tightened her grip on her cousin, unable to fully understand why she felt such unease and fear springing up inside of her.

"I have to know, Lois." Chloe jerked her arm out of Lois' grip and took another step towards the scarecrow.

"The devil's not _real_ Chloe! He's not real! He isn't! Stories with him are things superstitious, delusional people use to either force others to behave the way they want them to, or to justify the evil things that they're doing!" Lois snapped, racing in front of her cousin and turning her back on the scarecrow, staring down into Chloe's pale face. Hissing when she realized those green eyes were staring at the scarecrow, she shook those shoulders. "Look at me Chloe! _Look at me_!" Only when those eyes finally tore away from the scarecrow above her and met her gaze did Lois speak again. "The devil wasn't the cause of what happened to you. He doesn't exist! A sick, _evil_ person hurt you. The devil had _nothing_ to do with it!"

"You can't know that." Chloe's gaze was green fire, tears beginning to appear as she shook her head, face scrunched up. "No one has been able to prove whether God or the devil really exist! No one!"

And it terrified her.

Lois wanted to scream and cry as she saw all the terror in her cousin's body, wanted to hold her tight and take her far away from this place, but she realized that she wouldn't be helping Chloe at all. She needed to prove to her-to show that there was no such thing as the devil.

That she was _safe_.

"_Fine_." Lois took in a deep breath as she turned to face the scarecrow, gazing at the cross it was propped up on. "Do you see any sort of ladder anywhere?"

"Ladder?" Chloe whispered behind her.

"Well, I'm not _that_ good of a climber." Lois turned towards her cousin and gave her a small smile.

Chloe eyed her silently before smiling softly, wiping at the tears in her eyes as she nodded, looking around her. "There's got to be one around here somewhere, they would need it close so they could tend to the scarecrow."

"Find it, but call me when you do, and don't go too far. I don't want you getting lost in the corn."

"Yes mom!" Chloe snickered, in a much better mood as she began her search.

Lois turned her attention towards the scarecrow, hands on her hips as she took in a very deep breath. "Okay sucker, you're going to be my first victim."

This was going to be the start of her new mission in life.

She was gonna tear the masks off of each of the demons which haunted the recesses of her cousin's mind and show them as the harmless things they were.

Maybe that would give the blonde back some sense of peace.

The cornstalks around them rustled loudly and then Dean and Sarah appeared, one worried, and the other excited, already taking pictures.

"Oh my god it's so freaky!" Sarah rejoiced, snapping pictures of the quite intimidating figure on the wooden cross above them.

"That's one fugly motherfucker." Dean narrowed his eyes on the creature before looking around him. "Where's Chloe? You didn't find her?"

It made Lois feel a little comforted to realize that he was genuinely worried. "She's fine."

"She needs a little help." Chloe grunted as she reappeared, dragging a heavy looking wood ladder. "This is _heavy_!"

Dean jogged towards her before Lois could even react, lifting the ladder from her arms and shouldering its weight with no problem. "What's this for?"

"I'm proving to her that there's no human face under that mask, that there's only stuffing." Lois replied as he came towards her and placed the ladder against the cross.

"Let me get a couple of more pictures first!" Sarah begged, clicking away. "This is going to get me the front page for _sure_!"

"You okay kiddo?" Dean asked, head turned towards Chloe, expression a little disturbed as he gazed at her.

"Yeah." Chloe nodded, hugging herself, staring up at the scarecrow's mask. "I know rationally that there's only stuffing of some sort behind the mask...but I still need to _see_ it."

Dean's eyes narrowed slightly. "You scared of scarecrows?"

"Never really gave it much thought, actually." She admitted, biting her bottom lip. "But they're slightly like clowns in appearance...and I'm terrified of clowns."

"No way!" He laughed, shaking his head. "My baby brother's scared of clowns too!" His eyes twinkled. "Never could get it. They're supposed to be such happy, fun beings and shit."

Chloe hugged herself tighter, never looking away from the scarecrow. "Never trust someone who you can't see the face of and thus won't be able to identify later on in your hospital bed when the police are asking questions."

The amusement drained out of Dean's eyes and he turned from Chloe to look at Lois, their eyes meeting. His were narrowed and filled with suspicion and a hint of question, seeming to recognize the darkness haunting Chloe's eyes and know somehow that her comments, her actions, weren't just whimsy.

Lois looked away from him, unable to confirm or deny any of the questions his eyes transmitted to her.

Chloe shivered, zipping up even more the purple hoodie she wore, pulling up the hoodie part to cover her head as she gaze up at the thing.

"Okay! I'm done." Sarah grinned, shutting off her camera, having obviously been in her own little world. "You can take the mask off now."

"Let me." Dean mumbled, and Lois nodded, letting him start climbing up the ladder leant up against the scarecrow. He made it way to the top and gazed at the thing, frowning into it's masked face, which seemed to be tilted downwards at the girls. "And behind door number one..." Reaching for the mask, Dean searched the back for the strings which held the mask together. "It's tied together really tight."

The crows were silent once more, watching, once more. A couple of them stretched their black wings out menacingly.

Lois' eyes narrowed on them, taking a little step backwards, gaze going to her cousin immediately.

Chloe didn't seem to notice the crows anymore, her face pale with the hint of green, on hand on her heart and the other going to her mouth, her breathing growing erratic.

"Chloe?" Lois turned towards her.

"I'm feeling sick." Chloe's voice was thick as she clamped her hand over her mouth and turned before racing into the cornfield.

Lois took off after her cousin, the corn seeming to swish in front of her, cutting off her path and making it difficult to follow, but she did. She made it through the endless corn and found Chloe kneeling down in one of the cut-out walkways the farmers would use to navigate through the corn. The girl was crouched over, one hand on her heart, and the other fingers deep in the soil as she heaved out her breakfast there on the ground.

Shaking her head, Lois walked to her cousin and knelt down next to her, rubbing her back.

This was why the blonde was losing so much weight, thanks to these episodes she wasn't keeping anything in.

Cornstalk crunched behind them and then Dean emerged, frowning. "What happened?"

"She's having a panic attack." Lois sent him a sad smile over Chloe's back as she continued to rub it. "Maybe this was too soon."

Suddenly the crows made a horrendous sound as they all took to the heavens, their black wings working furiously as they flew away in time for a scream to echo from the direction the trio had come from.

Dean turned around, reaching into the back of his jeans and pulling out a gun. "Sarah." He turned to Lois and Chloe. "Stay here." And with that he raced away. "Sarah!"

Lois didn't know how to feel about the fact that she'd been right about him carrying a gun-but considering that Sarah was still screaming she figured relief should be the best emotion. "Honey, I need you to get control of yourself. Something's happening."

Chloe nodded, brushing the back of her palm over her mouth as she took in a deep breath and pushed to her feet.

Sarah's screams had stopped, but they'd been replaced by gunshots.

Pushing Chloe behind her, Lois reached down into her boot and pulled out a switchblade she always kept on her, flicking the blade out and holding it in front of her. "When I say so, you run."

"I'm not leaving you!" Chloe snapped behind her, picking up a rock and holding it up.

"Yes! You will!" Lois snapped back.

Suddenly the cornstalks around them began to rustle violently as something hurried towards them.

Lois tightened her grip on her blade, ready for whatever appeared out of the cornstalk...

...or so she'd thought.

The cornstalks were pushed aside and out emerged the scarecrow that'd hung on the cross above them moments before. It was taller than she'd realized, its movements were human though, the black triangular slits in the mask focused on them, on her, as it advanced.

A rock flew in the air and hit it right in its head, driving it back, the scarecrow letting out an inhuman sounding...sound.

Lois felt Chloe's hand slip into hers and then she was jerked backwards, and the brunette turned with the movement, taking off. Hands held tight the cousins raced deeper into the cornfield, knowing that they were running in the opposite direction of the cars, but with the thing already behind them taking chase they knew that the only thing they could do was press forwards and keep as much distance between them and it as possible.

Being the stronger, longer-limbed one, Lois quickly found herself in the lead pulling Chloe behind her. Her mind was in chaos as it tried to digest what was happening. Was this some sort of set up? Were the locals hanging around dressing up as the scarecrow and chasing people as some sort of publicity stunt? Where Sarah and Dean really a part of some murderous group who'd hunt them down before killing them?

There was, of course, another theory, but as they raced away Lois refused to even contemplate it.

The supernatural didn't exist.

It _couldn't_.

She understood the meteor infected and the uncanny abilities they had because it was scientifically probable...in fact she was happy and relieved for it because it was the meteor rock dust surrounding Chloe's heart which had ended up saving her life...but the _supernatural_?

Cursed scarecrows?

Damned souls?

The _devil_?

She refused to even give those superstitions a second thought.

Not even as she ran away from the scarecrow, which seemed to be gaining speed and was too close behind.

And then Chloe's hand slipped from hers as they travelled through another expanse of corn and there was a scream and then she was gone.

"Chloe?" Lois screamed, tumbling to a stop as she looked around her, unable to see her cousin anywhere. "CHLOE!"

The corn rustled and the scarecrow appeared, holding a pitchfork in his hand.

Eyes widening, Lois cursed, staring all around her.

She didn't know what'd happened to Chloe, but she needed to distract the scarecrow and get it as far away from her cousin as possible.

So that's why she ran.

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**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Supernatural...or Hallowed Ground.**

Chapter 3/7

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Lois didn't know how long she'd been running, or how far, but she realized that she'd been running in circles when she stumbled upon the clearing of dead grass in the middle of the cornfield. The only difference was that now blood stained the yellow, sticky and abundant, and Lois' fear escalated inside of her rapidly beating heart. This couldn't be Chloe's blood. It couldn't. And yet she had to know, so she followed the trail with her gaze, forgetting why she'd been running minutes ago.

On the cross where the scarecrow had once been, Sarah Austen's body was placed in a crucified manner. There were nails in her body, keeping her pinned to the wood, and blood pooled down her body feeding the ground beneath her...where greenshoots were already starting to appear.

Gasping in horror, Lois took two steps back and ran into something.

Screaming, she twirled around, and found herself face to face with a beat-up Dean Wincester. "Stay back!" She raised her knife, taking a couple of hurried steps backwards. "Don't come a step closer!"

"You don't honestly think _I_ did that." He snapped at her. "Who was I shooting at if I did?"

"It could have been the air! As a distraction! This could all be a game to you!" Lois screamed at him, the hand she held the knife with wavering slightly. "You could have changed into the suit and chased me! You could have taken it off now to get my guard down!"

"I didn't _do_ any of that! I've been searching for you and Chloe this whole time!" He screamed back at her, taking steps towards her despite her blade. "I've shot that thing in the heart and in between its eyes and it kept coming towards me. It tossed me around as if I weighed _nothing_! Sliced at me with what seemed to be like _claws_ under the gardeners gloves he wore! If he hadn't seemed so intent on getting to _you_ two he probably would have made sure that I was actually _dead_ when he left me and not just knocked out!" He unzipped his jacket to show the claw marks and blood on his t-shirt and stomach. "I am _not_ the one you should be pointing that knife at!"

She wanted to believe him-she _wanted_ to believe that she could trust him-but if she did then she'd also have to believe that he'd shot that thing in the heart and between its eyes and she wasn't ready to accept the implications.

"Where is Chloe?" Dean asked slowly, though there was obvious frustration in his every feature. "Did it get her? Is she dead?" He stepped closer. "Lois! Is she dead?"

"I don't know!" Lois tried to breathe, tried to keep from hyperventilating. "One minute I'm holding her hand and then the next she's gone and that thing has a pitchfork! Where did it get a pitchfork from? Why is it doing this?"

"When Chloe disappeared, was it still chasing after you?" Dean asked.

Lois nodded.

"Good, then it means it either isn't interested in her or it doesn't know where she is either. Both are very good circumstances, but we need to act fast. I have things in the trunk of my car that we're going to need if we want to be able to search for her and yet not be sitting ducks. Okay?" Dean slowly made his way towards her. "But we need to get out of the cornfield Lois. We need to do it now. Before it finds us again."

"I can't leave her here with it." Lois shook her head, tears falling down her face, wanting to tear her hair out in frustration. "I can't just _leave_ her!"

"We're not leaving her. We're going to get help for her." Dean replied. "If we don't it's going to find us and kill us and then she's left here all alone with it for much longer than it would take for us to go to the car and back-and it _will_ find her."

Lois looked around her, at Sarah's mutilated body, at the corn around them, and then back to Dean. "Goddammit! If this is really you I'll _kill_ you!"

He nodded, motioning with his head. "Now let's go."

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His father's number went straight to voicemail.

He'd tried both John's and Caleb's phones but both of them were off, so he'd then called Sammy, but the Stanford boy hadn't answered his phone.

Cursing, Dean turned his back on Lois and called his father's number once more, waiting for his father's voice telling him to leave a message to end so he could do just that. "Dad, its me Dean. I'm in some backwater town called Hope and I've come across a hunt with civilians involved. There's a local legend about a preacher Hathaway, some sort of nutjob who'd sacrifice the town's sinners so that his god would keep the crops good. Well, apparently he was killed on his property and hung up like a scarecrow as well before being burnt alive and now a scarecrow has seemingly come to life and has killed one civilian, and another-a kid-is unaccounted for. I need your help. This isn't a human. Normal bullets didn't do anything, and it isn't a ghost because the rocksalt bullets didn't phase it either. Gimme a call the moment you get this. A kid's in danger."

"Who the hell _are_ you?" Lois' voice asked behind him, causing the young hunter to sigh as he turned towards her. "Ghosts? Rocksalt? Hunt?"

"Let me give you the quick and dirty version." He pushed passed her and went to the trunk, opening it and then revealing the false bottom to show his weapons and such. "My family and I hunt the supernatural. It exists. It's the reason I came on this trip because I wanted to be here in case something like this happened...but I only really thought we'd be dealing with a ghost. Since the rocksalt didn't phase it, I'm guessing this is much more than the average haunting."

"_Average_ haunting?" She was pale, shaking, deep in denial. "Are you _insane_? That's a man in there! A sick, _evil_ man!"

"You can't still believe that that's a normal human being! I shot it! On two different occasions!" Dean snapped, unable to understand why she was so reluctant to believe him.

"Yeah, according to _you_ you shot it! I never actually saw you doing it!"

He let out a frustrated growl. "Whether you believe me or not, that's a supernatural creature, and its got your cousin trapped with it."

"Does Hope have any record of meteors falling?" She asked the oddest question he'd ever heard. "Maybe this is like Smallville. Maybe there are meteor freaks. Maybe-."

"Wait, what? Meteor freaks?" What was she talking about?

"Smallville, Kansas. Meteor capital of the world?" She was pacing, agitated. "The meteors falling mutated tons of the people who lived there, gave them powers, made them _insane_. That could be what's happening here. There could be meteor rocks all over that cornfield."

Meteor rocks that mutated people and gave them powers?

Was she for real?

And if so-how was it that he hadn't heard of this Smallville before?

"We need to call the police," she whipped out her phone, cursing. "There's no signal!"

"Of course there isn't." He muttered, going through his weapons. "There never is, and the police aren't going to be of any help. They'll just get in the way and give this thing more victims."

"How is this happening if this is supposed to be hallowed ground?" Lois wanted to know, changing the topic quickly. "I thought things like this weren't supposed to be on hallowed ground!"

"So you're believing me that it's supernatural now?" He pulled out a Panga machete and sliced the air with it, nodding in satisfaction at the feel of it in his hands.

"No. I'm just-," she stopped pacing and bent down to shove her closed switchblade into her combat boot before coming to his side and riffling through the trunk of weapons, pulling out a Kukri machete. "Why are we going for machetes instead of the shotguns and pistols and other firearms here?" She raised an eyebrow. "A crossbow? Really?"

"Because bullets don't work on whatever that thing is." Dean leaned in and grabbed a flask, flinging it to her and only mildly impressed when she caught it with her left hand, not even really having even looked at it. "Holy water."

"Holy water? Are you _serious_?" Lois finally looked at the flask, eyes wide. "Do you work for the _church_ or something?"

He snorted. "The closest thing to being affiliated with any religious organization is when we work cases with Pastor Jim."

Stuffing the flask into her hoodie's pocket, Lois pulled out her phone once more and tried searching for service before freezing. "That can't be."

"What?" Dean frowned, reaching in for a container of salt.

"What time does your phone say it is?"

Reaching into his pocket, Dean stared at his phone's screen before freezing. "There has to be some sort of mistake." And yet as he raised his hand to shield his gaze as he looked up at the sky, the position of the sun said otherwise.

"We _couldn't_ have been in there that long!" Lois hissed as she shoved her phone back into her pocket. "It can _not_ be passed three in the evening! It was breakfast time not half an hour ago!"

"This is getting weirder." Dean ran his hand over his hair, dialing his father's number once more, cursing when it went straight to voicemail. "Where is he when I need him? Dammit!"

A female scream erupted from the cornfield.

Lois looked up, eyes wide, skin pale. "_Chloe_."

"Lois, don't-!" Dean growled as she took off, heading into the cornfield without a second's thought. "Goddammit."

And with that he slammed down his trunk and raced in after her.

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"Chloe!" Lois yelled as she raced through the cornfield, the sound of crying and screaming seeming to be coming from all around her, slowly yet surely driving her insane. "CHLOE!" She tripped and nearly fell yet caught herself and continued on. "If you hurt her you fucker I'll kill you!" She pushed forwards, calling Chloe's name over and over again, shouting out threats to whoever or whatever was out there, and growing more and more terrified with each step. She also was growing more and more lost yet she didn't care, chasing one set of screams and cries before turning and following another set when the first would end in deadly silence.

It occurred to her that whoever was out there was screwing with her mind, playing her, and she was walking right into the trap laid out for her. But if her cousin was there, she'd go there willingly-and then she'd kick the _shit_ outta whatever this was.

Be it human-or not.

She realized that she'd lost Dean some time ago, and while a part of her worried about being alone and lost in the middle of a cornfield, she had daylight on her side and...

...it was getting dark.

Lois stopped running, staring up at the sky in horror as she realized that the sun was setting.

Digging into her pocket, Lois pulled out her phone and the time displayed there was far from what it'd been half an hour ago when she'd raced back into the fields.

What the _hell_ was happening?

It was only then that she realized that there was utter silence all around her.

No screams.

No cries.

No crows.

Nothing.

Tightening her grip on her machete, Lois gazed around her warily, trying to figure out what her next move should be. She couldn't even figure out which way was towards the cars anymore, and she could be going deeper into the cornfield while trying to get out. The girl was good and lost.

"_No_." She shook her head, refusing to believe this. "_No_!"

Suddenly her phone rang, causing her to jump and shriek in fear and shock, eyes widening in surprise.

The phone had signal?

It did!

Lois felt tears fill her eyes as a picture of Chloe grinning and showing a peace sign to the camera flashed on the screen with the name "Lil Cuz" blinking.

Answering the phone, relief racing through her, Lois cradled the device to her ear. "Chloe? Where are you? Are you okay?"

Static buzzed in her ear.

"Chloe?" Lois strained to hear something. "Chloe answer me! Are you okay?"

The call hung up.

Beginning to shiver, not understanding why she was so terrified, Lois jerked when the phone rang once more, but she answered it quickly.

Desperately.

"Chloe!"

"_...Lo...isssssss..._" the static was horrible, making it hard to make out the voice of her cousin.

"Oh thank the gods, you're alive." Lois let out a cry of relief. "Where are you Chloe? Are you hurt?"

"_Hope...sher...tion_..."

"Hope sher tion?" Lois made a face, not getting it, until her eyes widened. "Do you mean Hope _sheriff_ _station_?"

"_Ye...ssssss..._"

"How did you get there?" Lois ran her hand over her hair.

"_Fell...road...help..."_

Lois could figure out what'd happened from those three words. She found it odd that Chloe had left her and gone with strangers, especially considering the circumstances...but Chloe was a traumatized kid and Lois shouldn't try to rationalize the decisions of a terrified kid. "Wait right there, I'm coming for you."

The phone went dead.

Hoping Chloe had understood her last message, considering the reception was so horrible, Lois dropped her machete to cup her hands to her mouth and yell out. "DEAN! CHLOE'S IN TOWN! DEAN! SHE'S SAFE!"

Somewhere, very far away from where she was, she could hear a faint yell back. "_How can you know_?"

"SHE CALLED ME!" Lois yelled back. "I NEED TO GO GET HER!"

There was a pause, and then: "_Go! I have to finish this and make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else!"_

"WHAT WAY IS BACK TO THE CARS?" Lois yelled back, annoyed that she was that lost.

"_Follow the North Star_!"

North Star?

What did he think it was? _Night_?

And then Lois realized just how dark it was around her, and her eyes widened as they rose to the sky...to see the stars appearing.

There was the North Star.

_What the hell is going on_?

Picking up her machete, Lois followed it, shaking her head, and pushing back the sick feeling in her stomach.

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It was probably twenty minutes later when in the distance he heard Lois' car start up and drive away.

Dean let out a breath of relief, his flashlight shining around him, his other hand tightening around his machete as he continued his hunt. Now that there were no civilians involved he could concentrate on the hunt and not have to worry about others and their safety. He didn't have a hunting partner like he usually did, so the less things he had to worry about other than himself, the better in his mind. Plus, civilians had no place in a hunt.

But he had to admit, he admired Lois for the way she just ran straight into danger to protect her little cousin. It reminded him of how he was with Sammy, and it made him miss his stupid little brother more than he wanted to admit.

Sammy had left them, had chosen a different life over them.

Pushing back his sadness and resentment, Dean was glad he had a hunt, had something to take his frustration out on.

Taking a strong forwards step, ready to hunt down whatever this was and kill it once and for all, Dean's foot went through the ground and the next thing he knew, before he could get a good grip on anything, the portion of the floor under him gave way and he tumbled down...down...until hitting the earthy floor beneath.

"_Goddammit_!" He hissed, his head killing him.

At least there was soft soil beneath him to break his fall.

Reaching for his discarded flashlight, Dean shone his light above him at the wooden ceiling, eyes widening as he remembered Sarah's story about Hathaway having his people build a shelter underground. The soil and cornstalks and such had completely covered any trace of it from above, and he must have stepped on a piece of the ceiling which had rotten wood and that was why he'd fallen through.

"Great. Just great." Shaking his head, Dean shone his flashlight around the pitch black place, trying to see if there was a way out of there...and then he froze as his beam fell onto something unexpected. "_Chloe_?"

The kid was laying lifeless on the ground, her clothes dirty and torn, having apparently fallen through as well.

Blood was dried on her temple, proving she'd hit her head hard during the fall.

"_Chloe_!" Hurrying towards her, Dean knelt over the girl, checking for any injuries yet other than the hit to the head she seemed fine. "Chloe. Chloe wake up. Chloe!"

She groaned, finally showing some sign of life, her eyelashes fluttering softly before finally green eyes opened, staring up at him in disoriented confusion.

"Are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere?" Dean asked, shining his light over her.

"What-happened?" She groaned, placing a hand to her head as she sat up, wincing. "Where are we?"

"Look into the light, I want to make sure you don't have a concussion."

She made up her face at him before doing as told. "Are you some sort of paramedic or something?"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "No, I'm just used to dealing with a lot of concussions...which you don't seem to have, thankfully."

"Where am I?" She asked once again. "Why is it so dark?"

"I think we're in the underground shelter the deranged preacher had his people make so they could wait out the end of times." Dean replied drily, shining the light around. "I fell through that hole there..." he searched the ceiling before finding a smaller one a little to the right of where they were. "I'm figuring you fell through there."

Suddenly Chloe went still, her eyes widening. "The scarecrow came alive."

Apparently it was finally coming back to her.

"It was trying to kill us!" She turned to him, grabbing his jacket. "Where's Lois?"

And then Dean froze as he remembered. "She-she was went to town."

Chloe pulled away, eyes wide and hurt, voice breaking. "_She left me here_?"

"No!" Dean shook his head. "She was searching for you restlessly-_crazily_. But she got a call from you and you told her you were safe in Hope."

"_What_?" Chloe asked in confusion, searching the pocket of her hoodie and pulling out her phone...which was broken.

"What the _hell_ is going on in this cornfield?" Dean snapped, running his hand over his hair. "First murderous scarecrows, then the time seems to _literally_ fly by, and now phone calls that don't actually happen?"

"A trap." Chloe looked up at him, urgent. "She's walking into a _trap_."

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**TBC**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Supernatural...or Hallowed Ground.**

Chapter 4/7

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"Where is she? Is she okay? What happened?" Lois rushed into the Hope sheriff station and looked around, finding only one man on duty. She hadn't even turned off her car, leaving the machete on the passenger's seat as she raced inside of the building, desperate to see that her cousin was fine.

The deputy stood immediately when he saw her. "Now calm down Miss Lane, have a seat. Would you like something to drink?"

The whole drive to the station Lois' mind had been torturing her and she did _not _like the fact that the man was obviously stalling. What was it that he didn't want to tell her? Was it Chloe? Had she been hurt more than she'd let on in the telephone call?

"We have some cake-."

"Where. Is. My. Cousin?" Lois slammed her hands down on his desk, causing him to jump.

"Calm d-down ma'am!" The man gulped, taking a step back. "She's with Doc."

Lois' strength left her and she collapsed into a seat in horror, staring up at the man. "She's hurt. Isn't she?"

"Well, she's had a rough night." The man announced, scratching the side of his face.

"What happened?" Lois leaned over the desk, taking in a deep breath, preparing herself for whatever he had to tell her.

"Well, from what we've managed to get out from her, the two of you got separated and she was then attacked by some young feller you were with." The man sat down once more.

Lois looked up at that, eyes narrowing. "_What_?"

"She said there was a handsome young man who went with ya'll to Pastor Hathaway's farm and that when she got separated from you he happened upon her." The deputy watched her intently as he spoke. "She said he pushed her to the ground and covered her mouth so she couldn't scream for help."

Cold fury worked its way through Lois' body as she could all-too easily imagine the scene. "_That bastard_." How could she have trusted Dean and his story about being a supernatural hunter? How could she have been so stupid? So blind? "Did he rape her?"

The deputy hesitated.

"Did that monster force himself onto my baby cousin?" Lois needed to know exactly how much pain she needed to deliver before finally driving Dean Winchester's own machete through his heart.

"It's hard to tell, she's real shook up-and was knocked about pretty bad." The man shrugged. "It's why she's with Doc. He's seeing the extent of the injuries."

"Where's his office?" Lois stood, her nerves and anxiety rolling in her stomach causing nausea to rise in her throat.

"It don't make no sense for you to be getting yourself over there now, it's a small place and you'd only get in Doc's way." The deputy stood as well, holding a hand out to stop her movement. "Just sit back down and let good ol' Doc do his job. The sooner he finishes the sooner yer lil cousin will be brought back here and you can see her."

She wanted to go anyway, wanted to explain how Chloe didn't like people touching her, didn't like touching people. She wanted to explain that the blonde had seen too many doctors lately and that she didn't trust them, didn't like them, it was why they kept on having to change psychiatrists every couple of sessions because she wouldn't open up, wouldn't submit to their therapy. There was just so much Lois wanted to say, but there was something in the deputy's eyes that said that he wasn't going to be telling her where Doc was and that he wouldn't listen to her anyway even if she did tell him all of that.

So, if she couldn't be with her cousin, she made sure that at least the person who'd hurt her, again, was apprehended.

"You got to get all your men and go back to the farm." Lois ordered, snarling as she sat in angered resignation. "He's still there. The guy who did that to her is still there. If you don't go he'll skip town and he'll never get caught!"

"He's still at the farm?" The deputy seemed shocked as he reached for his gun. "I want you to stay here. I'm going to go and apprehend him."

"You shouldn't go by yourself, he mightn't be alone." Lois fought the urge to tell him to give her his gun and that she'd deal with it herself. "There was someone in a scarecrow costume there, and I don't know whether it was him or not. So you shouldn't go alone."

"It's all going to be just fine." He assured her, gathering his ammo. "Just sit tight and Doc will bring you yer lil cousin when he's done looking her over."

Lois nodded, hating to have to wait yet knowing that sometimes she didn't have a say in it.

"Don't you worry your purty lil head now." The deputy headed towards the door. "It'll all be over soon."

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They'd walked for a while before finding a ladder to a trap door above, and with his grip tightening on his machete, Dean pushed it open and looked around them. They seemed to be in one of the walkways, and while the scarecrow couldn't be seen it didn't mean that it wasn't around watching them, waiting for him to turn around so it could impale him with its pitchfork. But Dean had never been a coward, and he pulled himself out, fully exposing himself to the cornfields on either side as he put down his machete and reached down for Chloe. She hesitated a second, just staring at his hand before placing hers in his and letting him help pull her out of the hole, closing the lid with a kick of her foot once she was out.

Dean stood, machete in one hand and flashlight in the other. They'd already decided on their game plan from down below, realizing it was safer not to speak once they were aboveground in case their words were brought to the scarecrow on the wind.

Staring up at the sky, getting his bearings, Dean turned to Chloe and motioned with his head towards where they'd be running.

The blonde nodded, taking in a deep breath.

As one they took off in the direction of the cars, pushing cornstalks out of their way, and always keeping close to the other. The girl was a footstep behind him, his legs longer and giving him greater strides, but he made sure to keep her in his sideways view at all times. Hazel eyes were alert on all around them, ears listening intently, and while all they could hear was the wind through the cornfield and the song of nightbirds, he didn't let down his guard. The scarecrow could be anywhere now, and from his experience these sorts of things were more active at night, so they couldn't stop for a second.

Not even to catch their breath.

They were making good time, and if Dean's rough calculations were anywhere close to being right they just had a couple minutes run until they reached the farmhouse.

Suddenly Chloe disappeared from sight.

Skidding to a stop, Dean turned around and frowned darkly when saw the girl just standing there, staring at something in the darkness.

What the hell was she doing?

He stormed towards her, ready to grab her hand and pull the damn girl...when the corner of his eyes caught movement and he finally followed her gaze and it rested onto a scarecrow.

But unlike the one who'd been following them, this one was still up on the cross, hands and feet nailed to rough with horribly thick nails.

This scarecrow also had the body of a young, pregnant girl, her face covered by a burlap sack.

Soft cries could still be heard from the cross, weak, drained, dying.

"..._deliver us from evil_..."

It was the Lord's Prayer.

She was saying the Lord's Prayer.

Tears of horror were draining down a pale, mute Chloe as she brought her hands to her mouth.

Racing forwards, Dean hesitated at the foot of the cross, unable to decide how to go about helping this girl. The nails had her pinned to the cross, and they were so thick that she definitely wouldn't be able to use her hands, much less walk on her feet. And how would he get the nails out of her? Reaching her at the height the cross was raised at was a problem in itself, and she'd most definitely scream when he tried to remove those nails-would give away their location to that creature that was probably hunting them already.

But all that said, he couldn't just leave her here.

He couldn't!

And yet he not only had to protect himself...but Chloe and Lois as well.

A part of him argued that two civilians' lives were more important than just one...and yet another part of him refused to believe that leaving the girl on the cross was even an _option_.

"..._hallowed be thy name_..."

The girl was starting the prayer again, her voice sobs.

"_We're here to help_." Dean hissed softly. "_Try not to make any noise_."

The girl sobbed a high-pitched sound, the only acknowledgement that she'd heard him.

"_They're still doing human sacrifices_." Chloe whispered in horror as she stared at the pregnant girl nailed to the cross. "_They're still crucifying their sinners_."

Dean pushed back her words and the disgust that registered in him at the very thought of it being a possibility. Instead he concentrated on the task at him, but from the awkward angle of the girl's feet he realized that they'd been broken during the nailing and that was going to make this harder, and much more painful.

What to do?

What the hell was he supposed to do?

"_Dean_." Chloe whispered.

If his father had been here he'd know what to do!

"_Dean_!" Chloe grabbed at his arm, tightening her hold on him.

He finally turned to look at her.

Her face was made up in sadness, her ashen cheeks covered in tears. "_She's gone, Dean_."

Eyes widening, Dean turned to look up at the body, finding the girl on the cross completely still and silent now, covered head hanging lifelessly.

No.

No!

He couldn't have lost another civilian!

Not another one!

This nameless, faceless girl would join Sarah in the group of people who'd haunt his nights.

And if he didn't want the kid and her cousin to join that group, he'd have to get his shit together. "We need to press on."

She nodded silently, turning her back on the body on the cross, following him when he took off once more heading in the direction of his Impala.

Dean kept his gaze around them and his light in front of them, lighting the way...but as they reached the edge of the cornfield he turned it off and stopped, raising his hand in what he realized belatedly was a military gesture.

The girl seemed to understand it though and stopped immediately, looking around her, intent.

Two men were talking, and the flash of a sheriff car's lights could be seen, the car's headlights shining into the cornfield to their right. Any normal person would hurry out towards the keepers of the law and try to get help, and yet Dean trusted his instincts, and his instincts were telling him that Chloe was right...that there was no way that this could still be going on and the town's people not know.

Dean grabbed Chloe and pulled her off to the side, lowering them both to the ground, hidden behind a particularly thick patch of cornstalks as the men came closer.

"You think the Preacher got both the kid and the pretty boy?" The one in civilian attire asked, chewing tobacco.

"When I told him the girl was at the station he never said nothin' bout the other two." The one in deputy uniform questioned, shining a flashlight into the cornfields. "Then again, he don't have much of a mouth now, does he?"

"So what do we do iffen we find them in there somewhere and they're still breathing?" The civilian wanted to know, rubbing his beard. "That little blonde was perdier than a calf. So cute and tiny." He smirked, hand going down to scratch his crotch through the material of his pants. "Think he'll let me keep 'er?"

Disgust filled Dean and he tightened his hold on his machete, refusing to let the pervert touch the kid.

"You'll have to take it up with the Preacher." The deputy replied, motioning with his head towards the cornfield. "The guy though-I'm think he'd make a perdy scarecrow."

"He might attract the crows wiffin that face o' his!" The civilian snickered, pulling out a knife and testing the tip with an evil smile. "We might hafta cut it up a bit before stringing 'im up."

Dean turned towards Chloe to catch her attention and somehow tell her without words that he wasn't going to let her get hurt, but his words caught in his mouth as he saw that the girl was clutching her heart, frail body twisted in a very awkward position, seeming close to another panic attack. Her eyes were wide, her body shaking, her breathing erratic.

He couldn't deal with this now, not now. He needed her silent.

They needed to get passed these two maniacs.

He was not going to lose _another_ civilian.

No way in hell.

Acting on instinct, Dean reached out and placed his hand on her lower back as he'd seen Lois do, rubbing in slow circles.

Chloe jerked, her terrified gaze finding his.

Dean breathed in deeply and then breathed out deeply, holding her gaze as he repeated the process over and over again.

The blonde slowly began to copy his breathing, slowing her own bit by bit, breathing in and out, in, out, slowing with each one.

He nodded, approving of her progress as her breaths grew softer, slower...her body losing much of its twisting tension.

The fear was still there, but the panic had subsided somewhat.

Dean gave her back an awkward pat.

She sent him an awkward smile.

The men approached the cornfield and pulled out their guns as they stepped within.

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Where exactly was everyone?

Nervous energy had kept Lois from sitting for long, and she'd paced all over the police station, back and forth, back and forth, and now she found herself at the mirror staring out at Main Street. An _empty_ Main Street. The shops were all closed. The roads deserted. Not even a pedestrian walking on the sidewalks could be spotted. The whole town seemed like a ghost town with no one alive within. The sight gave the brunette the chills and she hugged herself as she continued staring outside. In her stomach, that nervous unease grew, and she couldn't help but feel that "Doc" was sure taking his sweet time.

Honestly, if it hadn't been for the fact that it'd been Chloe's number that'd called her Lois would be questioning whether her cousin really was in the town at all. She found it hard to believe that after everything Chloe had been through that she'd be fine with being with this "Doc" alone, especially knowing that Lois was on the way. If anything, Lois could see Chloe refusing to be treated until Lois arrived.

And now that they were on the topic of how Chloe would act-Lois was still trying to swallow the thought of her _leaving_ Lois in the cornfield.

That wasn't like Chloe.

Then again, there _had_ been a killer scarecrow...

...and yet that unease continued to grow.

Suddenly the sound of something sharp being dragged against glass sounded in the window behind her, and Lois screamed, turning around to find nothing. But the sound echoed on the window next to it, and even though once again she turned to the window too late to see the perpetrator, Lois preempted the next move and was staring at the next window the moment before the scarecrow appeared, trailing the tips of his pitchfork against the glass.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me." Racing towards the gun rack, Lois grabbed a pump-action shotgun and opened the drawer she'd seen the deputy take his ammo from, finding the right ones quickly. She filled the chamber with the ammo and pumped the shotgun, shoving a couple of fistfulls of ammo into her jacket before going to the window where she'd last seen the scarecrow...only then realizing that her car was missing.

Just fucking _great_.

Seeing a shadow Lois caught sight of the scarecrow and used the back of the shotgun to knock out the glass in the window and shot once, twice, three times, knowing she'd hit her target in at least two of her shots.

"Let's see how tough you are _now_." She hissed, going to the front door and opening it wide, taking the few steps down two at a time and heading towards what seemed like a severed appendage in the distance. The brunette hurried her pace, keeping her gaze alert as she hurried towards the arm and bent down...only for hazel eyes to widen in horror as she realized that the arm she'd shot off...was made of stuffed dry corn husks...with a modified garden hand cultivator stashed in the glove with bits of what look like Dean's shirt and blood on it. "That can't be." Sensing something behind her Lois spun and shot at the scarecrow right in its face, seeing bits of corn fly out of his mask as she made a hole at the very bottom. "Oh my god."

The thing came at her.

Her gun jammed...and considering that it obviously wasn't doing any good...Lois tossed it and ran.

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Once the men were deep enough into the cornfield that Dean couldn't hear them anymore, he brought his hand to his mouth and motioned for Chloe to get up slowly and follow him. They walked as softly and quickly as they could, emerging from the cornfield. He urged her towards his car as he went to the police cruiser, slashing the tires and the radio before taking the keys out of the ignition. Immediately the headlights went out, signaling to the men that their prey were by the cars, and Dean could hear them yelling and stampeding as they hurried back. He pushed them out of his mind though, racing towards the 'Pala and closing the door behind him, starting the engine.

Chloe was already putting on her seatbelt.

Pressing down on the gas, Dean swerved, turning just as the men cleared the cornfield ahead of them and opened fire. "Get down!"

Chloe leaned down and wrapped her arms around her head protectively.

Gunshots pierced the windshield...thankfully these whackos were piss-poor shots.

Pressing down harder on the gas, Dean used his beloved baby as a weapon as he mowed down the deputy...the civilian managing to jump out of the way at the last second into the cornfield. The Impala jerked as jolted as it rolled over the policeman's body.

If the kid knew what exactly had happened, she never commented on it, just tightened her grip on her head.

Shots rang behind them, but within seconds they were out of range and safe...for now.

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Lois' mind was in a frenzy.

Straw.

Straw.

The scarecrow was made of _straw_.

It wasn't a sick, evil human.

It was an evil...something.

She was going crazy with just the thought, with what it meant. Her mind kept flashing images before her of the scarecrow and of the first moment she'd seen Chloe after arriving in Smallville after hearing what had happened. Flash of Sarah's mutilated on the cross. Flash of Chloe seated on the hospital bed, chest all mangled, the bandage covering her heart seeping blood. Police standing guard outside of her room due to the second attack which had taken place in the hospital itself. Flash of the scarecrow chasing behind them in the cornfield, pitchfork raised. Flash of screams of the devil as multiple nurses had to restrain Chloe on her hospital bed as a couple of orderlies administered stronger sedatives since the first shots hadn't worked. Flash of the crosses in the cornfield. Flash of the intercepting scars over her heart which Chloe always kept well covered.

Up ahead of her, a cross loomed in the sky.

Eyes widening, Lois remembered Dean's comment about the land around a church being hallowed ground, and with that she raced towards it, banging on the doors. She didn't know if it was enough considering that the whole town was supposed to be built on hallowed ground, but she had to try.

The door opened and a pudgy, short pastor with glasses and wide eyes opened it. "What's wrong my daughter?"

"Someone's chasing me! I need sanctuary!" Lois pushed inside and closed the door behind her, sliding the deadbolt across the door.

"Who is chasing you?"

"Someone dressed as a scarecrow." She couldn't bring herself to tell the man anything else or he'd think her insane.

"Someone dressed as a scarecrow?" He frowned, placing his hand to the small of her back and leading her towards the pulpit and the room beyond it. "Maybe someone is playing a prank on you?"

"It killed a friend. This is _no prank_." Lois snapped, pushing away from him to look around the room behind the pulpit in which she found herself herded into. "Do you have a number for the town doctor? I don't know his name. The deputy never said anything other than Doc."

"We only have one doctor. Doc Grayson." He nodded. "I could give him a call, yes, but we should call the sheriff's."

"No, he's gone. I was right there." Lois shook her head. "My cousin is with Doc Grayson and I need to now that she's okay-I need to tell them that there's a murderous scarecrow out there. She isn't safe."

"Let me go get the phone for you my dear. Just sit down, everything will be fine now." He motioned for to take a seat as he exited the door, hurrying away.

Lois paced once, twice, then collapsed on the seat, leaning forwards and running her hands over her head, trying to digest everything that'd happened. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellular, dialing Chloe's number...only to be informed that the number was no longer in service.

What the?

Standing, Lois wondered if maybe it was just a thing of signal...but she had two bars and there much worse reception in the cornfield...so if a call had come through there it was ridiculous that she was having problems now!

Dialing a new number, Lois cursed when the phonecall cut off, but she didn't give out. She dialed it again, and again, and then when her uncle picked up, Lois ran her hands through her hair. "I think the devil might exist."

"What? Lois?" Uncle Gabe asked in confusion and slight panic. "What are you talking about?"

"We're in this backwater's town called Hope and a _straw-filled scarecrow_ is massacring people in cornfields! I shot at it Uncle Gabe! It's nothing but _straw_ inside!" She began to pace. "If things like that exist, doesn't it make sense that the devil mightn't be such a stretched of the imagination?"

There was silence, and then Uncle Gabe's voice was grave. "Where's Chloe, Lois? Is she hurt?"

Lois closed her eyes tightly, biting her bottom lip. "She's with the Doc, she was attacked, but I don't know what the extent of the damages are."

"Goddamit Lois!" Uncle Gabe was never one to curse, so this was like a slap. "I only let her go because you promised me that you'd take care of her! That she was safe with you!"

"Well that was before either of us believed the devil had anything to do with what happened to her!" Lois snapped at him, kicking at the pastor's desk. "We both know that if she stayed there Chloe would have gone insane!"

"Get her, Lois, and leave there." Her uncle ordered. "Get somewhere safe and stay there. I'll come to you."

Lois nodded although she knew he couldn't see her. "Yes sir."

"And Lois, take care of her." Uncle Gabe's voice broke. "She's all I have."

"I promise." Lois whispered, ending the phone call as she ran her hand over her face. "Goddammit!" Kicking the desk once more, Lois tried to keep calm, but now that she thought about it-the preacher had been gone an awfully long time for just a trip to find a phone. "Preacher?" Narrowing her eyes, Lois went towards the door and peered out. "Is everything alright?" The silence was deafening.

Gulping, Lois emerged from the room, looking around her at the darkened, abandoned pulpit. She looked around her, worried at the silence, and yet the door in the far end of the room seemed locked and secured, just as she'd left it. The brunette whispered to herself over and over again that she was safe, that that thing hadn't been able to find her and phase through the oak doors.

Passing by the pulpit, Lois frowned as a large leather bible caught her attention. She found herself oddly drawn to it, and while bible-reading was the last thing on her mind she ran her hand down the front of the binding as she undid it, opening the pages, realizing that this was handwritten. Hazel eyes narrowed as she flipped through the pages, pictures capturing her attention. Instead of the drawings being of Adam and Eve, or Noah, or any other known biblical story or figure, the pictures within were of crows and cornfields.

Instead of the story of the creation of the world, there was the story of the creation of Hope, and how god spoke to Preacher Hathaway and told him to build the town of Hope so that there would be a place where his people could dwell. It spoke of how god told Preacher Hathaway how to sanctify Hope, to make the ground hallowed, and where exactly to build both his house and the church, which stood to this day.

Lois gasped as she backed away from the book, seeing the picture of the church she was now in drawn there as clear as day.

"I'm sure you have many questions you need answering," the pastor announced, causing Lois to look up, hazel eyes widening in horror when she saw that somehow half of the town were now in the congregation, watching her. "I don't know how much you know."

"That reporter told her most of it." The waitress from the diner that morning announced. "She just doesn't know the end."

"Well, you see," the pastor stepped forwards, smiling at her. "Preacher Hathaway had many visions, and one of them foretold of his death by the men of Liberty. He wrote down what was to happen, what we must do, and we followed it to the letter. We burnt his body, so that the fire destroyed his body and set his spirit free to reside in his cornfields until his prophecy was fulfilled." He stepped forwards. "We buried his ashes in the land to anchor him to the hallowed ground, to us, and we've been waiting _so long_ for you Lois."

She took a step backwards. "How do you know my name?"

"Because _you_ are foretold. Your name, and arrival, were foreseen centuries ago and written for us to know you when you came." The pastor took another step towards her. "You see, you are the channel of his rebirth."

"Excuse me?" She hissed, not liking the sound of this at all.

"Preacher Hathaway could inhabit any body, but he needs a pure body, a living body, flesh of his flesh." The pastor smiled serenely. "You are to be the mother of his rebirth, and it is through your scared womb that he will be reborn in _new_ flesh."

Lois' eyes widened in horror as she realized what they were saying.

"Don't you worry now miss." One of the town's people announced in what was probably supposed to be a soothing way. "We'll take mighty fine care of you and the baby."

"You're all fucking insane!" Lois snapped, shaking her head. "I am _not_ gonna have any demon baby!" Sensing something shift behind her, Lois twirled around and dodged the large man who lunged at her, using the momentum to push him forwards into the pulpit. "Stay the hell away from me!" Elbowing in the face the man who reached her next, Lois was grabbed from behind, and despite how much she screamed and kicked she was outnumbered as the men grabbed her arms and legs, beginning to drag her out of the church. "Let go of me! Let go! Don't you fucking touch me you freaks!"

Only now did she realize further behind on the pulpit had been a large crucifix...on which hung a scarecrow in preacher's attire.

"You're all fucked up!" Lois continued to struggle and scream as they flowed out of the church like a sea of crazies, a mob of fanatics. "Let go of me!"

"I knew it was her from the moment I laid eyes on her!" The waitress was telling the woman to her right.

"Are we gonna string her up in the fields too?" A young boy asked excitedly.

"Preacher Hathaway's return is near!" Yet another cheered.

"Fuck you bastards!" Lois struggled, wincing at the way their grip on her tightened painfully.

A shot rang in the air, causing everyone to turn to see a dirty and bruised yet otherwise fine Dean Winchester standing outside of his car, pumping his shotgun and readying to fire off another shot. "Let go of her _now_."

"Lois!" Chloe sat in the front passenger's seat, dirty and bruised as well, but seeming more worried about her than anything else.

"Chloe!" Lois struggled harder once more.

"Now calm down boy." The preacher announced in his sickly reasonable tone as he came forwards, raising the large crucifix he wore on his chest up over his head and in the air. "I know that you're not from around here, but if you just listen to what we have to say-."

Dean shot the crucifix into smithereens, and pumped the shotgun once more. "Next one's aimed for your head, preacher." His lips twitched. "There's two ways in which this can end, and the outcome depends on just how eager you are to meet your maker."

"There's no need to be violent, son." The preacher announced, motioning to the men behind him to finally let go of Lois. "We're just a god-fearing community."

"_Asshole_!" Lois punched the man closest to her before she pushed passed the mob and Dean, climbing into the back of the Impala and reaching forwards to hug her shivering cousin. "I was so worried about you! Where were you? What happened?"

"I fell through the ground to the shelter below, Dean did the same and found me." Chloe responded, hugging her tightly, voice wobbling. "Two men came to the fields to kill us. We ran over one of them."

Guilt and horror filled Lois as she realized that it was because of _her_ that those men had gone to the field to hunt the others down. She could have gotten her baby cousin, and Dean, killed.

Dean entered the car and gunned it, speeding out of there, the townspeople watching them silently.

It seemed like in minutes they were out of the small town and onto the road towards civilization, surrounded on either side by towering fields of corn.

"What the _hell_ was going on back there?" Dean finally asked, trying to avoid the many holes in the dirty road as he sped away. "Why did they want you?"

"Yeah." Chloe fastened her seatbelt. "Dean says that somehow you got a call from my phone when mine was actually broken. It seemed like for some reason the whole town specifically wanted you."

Lois leaned hard against the seat, running a shaky hand through her dark brown hair. "Apparently their preacher is inhabiting the scarecrow, and they want me to have sex with someone and get pregnant with him."

"Huh?" Dean turned to look at her, confusion and shock in his eyes.

"Yeah. My reaction _exactly_." She agreed, throwing her hands in the air.

"Why you exactly? Why not Sarah?" Chloe wanted to know from the front. "Why not the pregnant girl in the fields?"

Pregnant girl in the fields?

"According to them this preacher _foretold_ our visit to this town and that I'd be his mama." Lois made a face, disgusted, deciding not to ask any questions for now. "We need to get the hell outta here and _never_ go on a roadtrip _ever_ again." She reached for her phone and then hissed when she realized it was gone. "Dammit! I must have lost my phone during the struggle with those freaks." She took in a deep breath. "I called Uncle Gabe and told him everything, he's going to freak out if we can't call him soon and let him know what's going on."

"You _told_ him?" Chloe cried out in horror, twisting around in her seat to glare at Lois. "Why would you do that?"

"Chloe! We were being chased by a spirit-inhabited _scarecrow_. If something happened someone had to know where we were and what happened!" Lois threw her hands in the air, not wanting to admit the other part of the conversation she'd had with her uncle.

"Use my phone." Dean tried reaching into his jacket, his sleeve getting caught on something. "Goddammit!"

"Calm down." Chloe muttered, reaching towards him and detangling whatever had gotten caught, surprising Lois when she reached into Dean's pocket and pulled out the phone, casually throwing it to her.

After what'd happened to her Chloe hated people touching her and would go out of her way to keep from touching others, so the fact that she'd voluntarily touch Dean and act as if it was nothing...it proved just how much her cousin actually trusted this stranger. It was humbling and left Lois with a knot in her throat that made it hard to swallow. She'd been sure that this would send the young blonde a million steps backwards in her recuperation, and yet despite it all Chloe seemed rather put-together.

Lois smiled slightly, holding the phone to her chest.

Suddenly lights shone brightly right behind them, disorienting them.

"What the hell?" Dean hissed.

That was the only warning they had before they were rammed hard from behind, causing the Impala to swerve off of the road and then the world was askew as the vehicle tipped over, rolling into the cornfield to their right at a high speed. Chloe screamed in the front. Lois tried to keep herself from being thrown out of the car. Dean could be heard cursing about his "baby".

Windows shattered.

Doors dented in.

Lois hit her head so hard she must have blacked out for a couple of minutes, because the next thing she knew the car had come to a stop upside-down and she was being dragged out. "No! Let me go! No!"

"What do we do with them?" One of the men asked the preacher, bending down to stare at Chloe's and Dean's unconscious bodies in the front.

"Bring them, we might have need of them. Especially the girl." The preacher announced. "If anything...our holy mother seems to have a one track mind when it comes to her little cousin."

"Don't touch her!" Lois struggled despite her pain and disorientation, kicking, trying to get free, but the men were stronger than her and then she was being laid down on a...cross? "No! NO!" Rope wrapped around her arms and legs, tying her to the wood. "Stop it!"

A teenaged boy arrived with a hammer and huge nails, pressing a nail to her palm and raising the hammer with unholy glee.

The man she'd punched earlier removed the hammer from his hand and slapped up the boy. "Don't be an idiot! We're not stringing this one up! She's the holy mother!" He then turned to her apologetically, nail in hand. "You got to forgive him miss, you know young people, they're just _so eager_."

Movement to her right caused Lois to turn her head, eyes widening as she saw the scarecrow emerge from the cornstalks as one of the men threw Chloe's limb body over his shoulder, and two others dragged Dean's out of the wreck. "_No_."

Something hit her hard on the back of the head and everything went black.

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Dean was in agony.

He was in the land of half-consciousness, head banged up and body in an even worse condition. He could feel broken ribs that made each breath a nightmare of agony, and his shoulder was out of place. The glass from his beloved 'Pala's windshield had sliced him up something bad, and he was very cold. Too cold. His eyes were only open a slit, the world blackening in the corners as he bled out.

The only things that were keeping him conscious were the hard floor of the cellar they'd been stashed in, and the tears falling on his face from the girl who's lap his head was resting on.

Dean hated girls crying.

It made him feel so impotent.

He was a playboy, yes, but one of the reasons why he never saw the same woman twice was because he knew that he would end up disappointing her and he couldn't stand that thought.

And yet he was disappointing this girl when she and her cousin needed him the most.

He couldn't even speak to feed her false promises.

Not that he figured she'd believe any reassurances-she seemed like a sharp cookie.

The fact that she didn't offer him any empty reassurances either proved it.

The world started going black.

Sounds were getting distorted.

It was harder to keep his eyes open.

He fought...dammit he fought!

The last thing he saw before everything went black were two male shoes as someone drew near.

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**TBC**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Supernatural...or Hallowed Ground.**

Chapter 5/7

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When Lois awoke she was lying on the bed inside of the boarded up master bedroom in Hathaway's home. She recognized it from the brief moment she'd been inside when she'd been looking for Chloe. What she _didn't_ remember was changing into an ugly old fashioned white nightgown. It was unflattering and reminded her of too many of the dresses ghosts usually wore in horror movies. She looked around her, trying to figure out where her clothes were, fighting against the hysteria and questions as to Chloe and Dean's location and safety. Would the people have killed them or would they use them (or at least Chloe) as leverage so that Lois would behave and do as told?

The door opened and the pudgy, short preacher entered, the door closing behind him but not before revealing two of the townsmen stationed outside.

"You look so pretty." He stared at her with unholy eyes, gulping as he began to undo the button of his shirt. "I knew the dress would suit you."

"You keep that shirt and everything else on or I'll-!" Lois pointed her hand at him threateningly.

"I can have the men come inside here and hold you down." He threatened in that disgustingly civil voice of his. "But I'd prefer if it was only you and I-don't you agree?"

She couldn't take all of them at once...she knew that and it burnt her. "Yes."

He smiled, removing his shirt, his gut falling over the waistband of his pants as he came towards her. "I understand your hesitancy, your fear, but this is what you were born to do. You are fulfilling a marvelous destiny, and you will forever hold a sacred position in Hope. You'll be the holy mother." He began working on his pants, sloppy in his haste, in his eagerness. "From your sacred womb he will come...the child we shall conceive tonight...we will be the parents of the preacher and give him a new, holy, pure temple...one as pure as your womb."

"Pure as my womb?" Lois made a face at that. "What crack are you people _on_?"

Placing his glasses on the side table, the preacher came towards her and she let him hold her hands in his as she formulated a plan. "I know that you're afraid, but do not fear, I will be your guide to pleasure."

As he led her to the bed Lois realized with a sense of horror that these people believed she was a _virgin_.

It didn't terrify her in the sense that she wasn't and she was scared that they'd find out...but what disgusted her to the bone was the fact that the town's big plan to get their asshole preacher back was centered around the _rape _of a_ virgin_.

Someone knocked on the door. "Everything fine in there preacher?"

"Yes." He called back. "Don't disturb us again."

The two men could be heard mumbling and snorting.

"Come now my child." The preacher rubbed his sweaty palms together nervously. "We have little time, morning is only a few hours away."

"Morning?" Was there a time-limit on this thing?

Could it only be done during the night?

If so there might be a chance!

Morning was only like three or four hours away!

If she and the others could manage to escape and lose themselves in the cornfields for a few hours they might be able to make it!

"Where are Chloe and Dean?" Lois allowed herself to be laid on the bed, the preacher hovering over her with nervous anticipation.

"Don't worry my child, they are both safe and sound in the cellar." He climbed up top of her clumsily.

Good.

That was all she needed to know.

As the preacher leaned down on her, his weight sustained by his elbows, Lois reached up and grabbed his head, giving it a violent jerk...biting on her bottom lip to keep from crying out when he collapsed on top of her...but a little sound came rushing out against her will.

Laughter of male amusement could be heard on the other side of the door.

The bastards.

Pushing away the realization that she'd just taken a human life, and the rising panic that came with it, Lois eased the preacher onto the bed and jumped off of it. She searched through the room frantically before finally finding her clothes and shoes, shimmying into them as quickly and quietly as possible. The brunette sent little glances towards the door as she reached into her boot and pulled out her switchblade. With the blade she tried easing the boards on the window loose as quietly as she tried formulating a plan. The basics were getting out of this room and maybe climbing into one of the other rooms, which would be easy considering her earlier rushed tour of the house proved that this was the only one that had boards on the window. If she could find her way into an empty room and navigate unseen to the cellar to where Chloe and Dean were...well...she'd leave the rest of the planning up to them.

Her childhood years growing up with her father going from army base to army base, joining in his training session with the soldiers, all of the stealth training and the fighting skills she'd garnered from those years were a second instinct to her now that she needed them. Adrenaline fueled her, giving her strength she wouldn't normally have, her fingers managing to dig in between the cracks of the boards once her knife had pried them open enough, and with one foot flat against the wall for added strength she slowly pulled the boards out, letting out little cries and groans whenever the wood made a little noise.

Let the bastards outside think that the preacher was the one causing her to make those sounds.

Finally she was able to pry off enough boards to reach out and open the window, pulling her body through the opening and onto the roof of the porch. The shingles were loose and it made things more difficult and dangerous, but with her back pressed to the house's wall Lois refused to look down as she slowly made her way around the house towards the closest window. The room was dark, so that was a good sign, and once she finally made it to it the brunette tried to open the window to the empty room...only to find the window locked from the inside.

Goddammit!

She tried once more but the window was locked tight, and she doubted that breaking the window to get at the lock would go unnoticed, so with a deep breath she pressed her back against the wall and continued slowly sideways across the porch's ceiling towards another window. The room was lit inside, but a quick sideways glance proved that no one was inside, and the window was open, allowing cool breeze to enter.

Realizing that someone could return at any moment given the fact that they'd left the light on, Lois slipped into the room and hurried towards the door, pressing her ear to the wood, hearing approaching footsteps. She twirled away from the door and pressed her back to the wall in time for the door to open up, covering her, stopping an inch from smashing her nose.

Tightening her grip on her knife, Lois waited for the person to turn and close the door before moving with their action and bringing up her blade, slicing the person's neck as her other hand covered the man's mouth, effectively silencing his death cry. Her grip went rapidly to his body, grunting as she slowed his fall to the ground, letting his body rest silently on the floor as his life gushed out of him, his eyes already blank. She searched the body frantically, not sure what she was looking for, but when she stumbled across keys to a vehicle of some kind she stuffed them into her pockets and wiped her bloodstained hands on the parts of his clothes which weren't already stained red.

Standing, flipping the light switch off as to not attract attention, Lois peeked the door open and peered outside, finding the hallway deserted.

Taking in a deep breath, the brunette slipped out, closing the door behind her as she slowly ventured towards the railing, gazing down below.

Down the hall, around the corner, she could hear three men chuckling.

"I'm just saying," the teenager who'd tried pounding a nail into her palm announced. "Preacher mightn't have it in him to do the deed is all."

"What would you know?" One of the men asked with a snicker.

"Yeah, we didn't know you were such an expert in the subject." Another chuckled.

"I'm just saying is all." The teenager's voice betrayed the fact that he was sulking now.

Tiptoeing away from the voices, Lois tried the first step of the stairs, relieved when the creak was minimal. Her gaze alternated from gazing above her to below as she made her way towards, clutching her switchblade.

Hearing someone speaking, their voices growing louder as the person grew closer, Lois hurried the last couple of steps and quickly ducked into the closet under the stairs, closing the door in time to see the waitress from the diner and another woman passing in front of her hiding place, talking excitedly amongst themselves.

"He could be conceived already if the preacher has done his job well." The waitress announced, clutching her hands to her heart.

"He'll have to keep at it, to make sure the seed takes." Her friend replied with a pursed lips. "Our beloved Preacher Hathaway only has tonight to be reborn in the pure womb of the virgin mother."

"Blood of his blood, flesh of his flesh." The waitress sighed dreamily.

"Will he be able to inhabit the body the moment it is conceived-or will he have to wait for the birth I wonder?" The second woman tapped a finger to her lips. "I never understood the scriptures on that aspect too well."

"It _is_ a bit vague, isn't it?" The waitress tilted her head. "But I always believed that it was when the child became the age of christ when he became a man and spent that time in the tabernacle, that the Preacher would take over its body." She shrugged. "But as you said, it's somewhat vague."

"And talking about _vague_...everyone's being that when it comes to the two in the cellar." The woman looked towards a door across the room. "I'm hearing a couple of the people wondering if we shouldn't just keep them around for breeding sake. We could do with new blood."

"If we kept the guy and Preacher Hathaway converts him, I'd think about getting married." The waitress giggled, joined in by her friends.

Shaking their heads in amusement, the two women left.

Waiting until she couldn't hear their footsteps anymore, Lois crept out of the closet and hurried towards the door the women had been looking at. It was locked, so she turned the bolt and winced when it made a loud noise, but thankfully no one seemed to have heard. She slipped into the room and closed the door behind her, seeing a dim light down below.

Not knowing whether were was a guard standing guard below or what, Lois took the steps as quietly as possible...until she came into view of the dimly lit cellar and nearly dropped her switchblade in horror.

Dean was unconscious on the ground, covered in blood, and still as death.

Chloe knelt on the ground in a seated position, covered in blood, a knife in her hand. Her clothes were torn and there was a dark bruise growing on her face from where she'd obviously been hit, her bottom lip split.

Lying on the floor, face down and in a pool of his own blood, was a man Lois hadn't seen before but had to have been one of these backwards bastards.

"_Chloe_?" Lois whispered, horrified...terrified.

Chloe didn't acknowledge her voice, staring down at her bloody hands and knife.

Not again.

Dear god _not again_!

Throwing herself down the rest of the steps, Lois hurried towards her cousin and knelt in front of her, cradling her face in her shaking hands. "Chloe? Are you alright? Chloe look at me! Chloe please!"

Chloe just stared in front of her, not reacting.

No no no no!

"Baby, I need you here. I need you to look at me. Please Chloe." Lois tried reaching her cousin, staring desperately into those blank eyes. "Honey, we need to get out of here and I need you alert to do it."

Giving a little cry of impotence, Lois closed her eyes tightly before shaking her head and opening her eyes, crawling over to Dean's body and pressing her fingers to his throat, relieved to feel a steady pulse. He must have been knocked out or just passed out from pain.

"Dean." She shook his body, not taking account the injuries he'd sustained in the car crash. "_Dean_! You need to wake up now!"

He groaned before hazel eyes fluttered open and he stared at her in painful disorientation. "What...happened?"

"We were in a car crash, they brought us back to Hathaway's home. We're in his cellar and we need to leave now before they realize I killed the guy who was supposed to rape me, and that I managed to escape the room."

He sat up, flinching in pain...before going still when his hazel gaze fell on Chloe.

"I need help with her, she's gone catatonic again." Lois bit back tears as she stood and helped Dean up, flinching at his groan of pain.

"Again?" Dean hissed, clutching at his side.

Lois ran her shaky hand through her hair. "Two months ago a raving psychopath broke into Chloe's home and drove a dagger into her heart. Twice. She survived only for the psycho to attack her in her hospital bed hours later, trying to finish the job."

"Stabbed her in the _heart_? Twice?" Dean's eyes widened. "There's no way she could be alive if that was true."

"Look for yourself." She pointed towards the torn part of Chloe's shirt which bared the section of skin over her heart.

Dean limped towards the blonde and then knelt before her, his hazel eyes widening at the intersecting scars. "_Impossible_."

"The person who did it said that they needed to kill her because of the devil." Lois whispered, feeling her hysteria beginning to grow in strength. "Chloe somehow managed to get away and crawl into the bathroom, locking herself inside of it. She was nearly dead when Uncle Gabe came home and found her. And in the hospital the adrenaline that was still in her system from the fear gave her enough strength to fight off the attacker until her screams attracted the nurses' attention and the person fled."

Dean reached out, face fascinated as his dirty fingers traced the mark on Chloe's chest. "It's a _cross_."

The touch seemed to shock something in Chloe because she took in a deep breath and a cry escaped her lips as the blankness melted out of her eyes.

She stared into his eyes in scared confusion. "_You're alive_?"

"Chloe!" Lois cried out in relief, going to hug her cousin, who was shaking viciously. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here to protect you! I'm so sorry!"

Chloe held onto her tightly, her shaking continuing to grow worse as she cried softly. "He didn't have permission to touch me…it's why he was here while everyone was busy waiting on the conception…it's why they didn't hear him when I got his knife and stopped him before he could-_anything_."

Oh thank god!

Lois pressed a watery kiss to Chloe's forehead before turning to look at Dean. "We need to get out of here before those lunatics realize that their inseminator's dead and gone." She stood, helping Chloe up with her, holding the girl tightly as Chloe clung to her. "We can't waste another moment, there's no telling what these fucking perverts will do if they find out that I'm not a virgin."

Dean frowned, standing tall. "What are you saying?"

"That I don't put it past these freaks to use _Chloe_ for their goddamn ritual!" Lois snapped. "Now can you _please_ stop asking questions and help with a plan? I have keys to some vehicle off of one of the guys upstairs. If we can make it out of this place and into the truck we might have a chance."

"You..._whore_." Chloe whispered softly before shocking Lois by pushing her away, eyes filled with hate.

"_Chloe_?" Lois squeaked, backing towards where Dean had gone tense.

"Her house _is_ the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death." Chloe sneered, tightening her hold on the knife in her hand. "For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead."

Dean suddenly reached out with his hand and swept a shocked, confused, and hurt Lois behind him protectively. "That's not Chloe."

"_What_?" Lois couldn't understand him.

"A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry." Chloe continued to quote what was apparently the Bible, derision in her voice and face. "But he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people." She raised her chin. "I should have known that you were not the one of the prophecy and that this child was instead...the virgin Mary _was_ a mere twelve years old when she bore the christ-child."

"_Hathaway_?" Lois whispered in horror, suddenly understanding what Dean had been saying.

"It's your beauty that beguiled me, my people." Chloe spat as the doors above opened, and the people began to slowly make their way down the steps. "Just like a prostitute who braids her hair and lines her eyes to tempt and corrupt a saint you would have led me astray!"

"You sick bastard." Dean hissed. "Leave that little girl alone!"

"These girls are mine by birthright and blood!" Chloe snapped at Dean, eyes flashing angrily. "From the womb of the one who caused my demise would come the womb that would give me life anew. Blood of my blood. Flesh of my flesh."

The implications hit Lois like a mac truck. "We're descendants of the little girl who told Liberty about what you whack jobs were doing..."

"I don't claim _whores_ as my kin." Chloe spat in disgust.

"Your _kin_?" Dean's eyes were widened in horror and disgust as he ran his hand over his head. "She was your _daughter_?"

"I had _many_ children, god wished me to be fruitful and multiple." Chloe chuckled as she motioned to the people swarming in the cellar and stairs.

"New blood." Lois whispered, being to shake as she remembered the conversation she's overheard. "You're _all_ related!"

"There's a little thing called for situations like these when you can't find someone on your own in your deadbeat town!" Dean smartmouthed.

"We needed to keep the lineage pure." One of the people announced.

"Unclean heathens like you would never understand." Another defended.

"Yeah! You're right!" Dean snapped. "I'll _never_ understand how boning my goddamn _sister_ would be all the rage!"

"_Enough_." Chloe's voice morphed terrifyingly, her eyes narrowed, her lips pulled in a disgusted sneer. "Take these two to the field and let at least their deaths contribute to the lord's work...since their living works were obviously in the employment of _the devil_." A small, delicate hand grabbed viciously at the neck of her torn shirt, tearing it further as she showed the scars on her heart. "We have been given a sign! Our god is with us!"

Murmurs and thanks to the lord were given as many of the people went to their knees.

"She's not useful to you!" Lois was desperate, pulling at straws. "The person who gave her those scars raped her before trying to kill her."

Dean turned to Lois, face pale and sick.

"She's not a virgin." Lois stared deep into her cousin's eyes, praying that the thing within her didn't have access to Chloe's memories, because if it did it'd know Lois was lying and all would be lost. "The man raped her for _hours_ before finally getting tired and driving the knife through her heart."

Chloe's head tilted to the side, eyeing Lois curiously, before her lips pulled into a Joker-esque smile as she tapped the dull side of her knife's blade against her own head. "A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish." Her head turned towards the crowd, her finger curling, beckoning someone near. "Joshua my son, come forwards."

The teenaged boy who'd been about to drive the nail in Lois' palm before, and who'd expressed his doubt on the preacher's ability to perform, came to stand before Chloe. "Yes Preacher Hathaway."

Chloe's hand rose to the taller boy, cupping his cheek. "I have always known you'd be of a special service of the lord."

The boy's face shone with happiness. "What would you have me do, Preacher Hathaway?"

"_Shhhhhh_." Chloe whispered, hand still cupping the youth's face as she brought her lips to his and kissed him deeply...

…before collapsing to the ground.

The teenager stretched his neck side to the side before smirking and turning towards them. "_This_ time, I shall oversee the conception myself."

"She is so blessed." The waitress whispered, crawling over to the teenager and kissing his hand in reverence. "To have our link to god bless her with her first pleasure."

"She is." Hathaway in the the teenager's body agreed, before those cold eyes went to Lois and Dean. "Take them and offer them to the Lord." He slipped out of the waitress' hold, going to pick up the unconscious Chloe. "It's time I was born."

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**TBC**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Supernatural...or Hallowed Ground.**

Chapter 6/7

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Dean was working on a plan.

Really.

He was.

Lois screamed and kicked and cursed and threatened and made herself a nuisance to the mob who were taking them out to the fields to be sacrificed, and while Dean didn't go willingly his mind was working a mile per second trying to figure out what his father would do in this situation. A part of him wished he could call his father at this very moment and ask for his advice, because somehow no matter how terrible things were John Winchester always knew a way out...but Dean knew that there was no way he'd be able to call his father now...he didn't even know where his phone was. The last time he'd seen it he'd been passing it to Lois before his baby was rammed up so badly and he'd gotten knocked out by the accident. So the phone was probably either somewhere still in the car, or smashed to pieces.

The thought of the accident made him think about his baby, which his father had only recently given to him with a stern command to take pristine care of her, but Dean pushed away thoughts of how damaged she must be. It was a distraction he couldn't afford, not right now.

This was more than just a hunt, more than just trying to stay alive...there were two civilians who depended on all his knowledge and skill. Two civilians had already died because of him, and the vision of their mutilated bodies hanging on their respective crosses in the cornfield would haunt him later on, but it wouldn't as much as it would if something happened to Lois and Chloe while on his watch. He mightn't know these girls, but seeing them reminded him too much of him and Sammy, and he wouldn't stop fighting because of that. Chloe reminded him too much of his little brother when he'd been younger, making Dean care for her despite the fact that he usually did not do things like that, especially with strangers. Lois reminded him of himself, and he could both understand and respect the way she looked out selflessly for her cousin because he'd done the same for his little brother. He felt a connection with the two of them because he could relate.

And he would _not_ let these girls suffer more at the hands of this deranged town and their incestuous preacher.

So he was working on a plan, but it was hard to really know how to destroy something if he wasn't too sure what exactly he was dealing with.

Bullets, silver bullets, and rock salt hadn't worked on this dude...and that covered most of his arsenal.

And the way that he possessed Chloe and then the boy seemed demonic, and yet up until tonight he'd been stuck inside of a scarecrow so that made Dean figure that since tonight was the night of his foretold "conception" that this was a special night in which he could inhabit living bodies…and that meant he wasn't a demon.

Also, demons weren't a common thing hunters came across, the bastards were usually stuck in hell where they deserved to be.

Also, a demon wouldn't be so goddamn fanatically christian.

So what the fucking hell _was_ Preacher Hathaway?

"String the whore up first!" One of the men yelled. "How dare she try to deceive us!"

"We should have known it wasn't her!" Another raised his pitchfork.

"Let go of me!" Lois screamed, struggling even more viciously as a couple more men joined in to grab her, laying her down on a cross and pinning her there as another brought a hammer and huge ass nails.

Dean watched as the people's attention was on the happenings, seeming to forget about him for a moment. He tilted his head slightly to the side, realizing that his captors as well were entranced in the sight of the brunette on the cross.

"Hold her still!" The one pressing the nail to her palm ordered. "The bitch keeps moving!"

"NO!" Lois cried as the man raised the hammer, and as the hammer lowered she jerked her arm violently...somehow managing to have the nail drive through the wrist of the man who'd been holding onto her.

The man screamed as blood spurted everywhere.

Using the distraction, Dean slammed his head back into the face of the man holding him, and when the man let him go to scream and grab at his bleeding face Dean twirled around to face him. During the move he snatched the pitchfork out of the hand of a nearby man and slammed the prongs into the face of the man who'd been holding him captive. Blood spurted on his face and clothes, and while Dean wasn't used to spilling human blood he didn't let this phase him, kicking the body away and loose from the pitchfork in time to turn and impale the man whom he'd stolen the pitchfork from as the man came at him from behind. He stared into those eyes, into the hatred and shock mixed there, before yanking the pitchfork free as the life began to leave those baby blues.

Lois had somehow gotten her legs free and wrapped them around the neck of the man who'd been holding them down, the sound of his his neck breaking lost in the screams.

Yanking the pitchfork out of its newest victim, Dean changed his hold on it and threw it, impaling the man who'd been about to shoot him. He then turned and grabbed the man who was on top of Lois, breaking his neck with a sharp twist on his hands.

Lois looked up at Dean with a sigh before her eyes went wide and she reached for the hammer which would have driven the nails into her flesh, flinging it behind Dean.

The hunter turned around in time to see the only woman of the crucifixion mob fall, bleeding from her fractured forehead, the knife she'd had raised to stab him with tumbling to the corn-covered floor alongside her.

"Thanks." Lois grunted as she gripped the hand Dean held towards her, allowing his help to her feet. "We need to get back to the house and we need to get Chloe the hell out of there _now_."

"We have the advantage that no one realizes we're not crucified." Dean ran his hand over his hair as he trudged towards the body with the pitchfork, stepping down on the carcass and pulling the weapon free. "But if we can't figure out what Hathaway is and how to kill him, then its going to be back to square one."

"Look, you think about how to kill him." Lois reached down and picked up the gun that the man had been about to shoot Dean with, hissing when she realized it was out of bullets. "Me, I need to save my little cousin." She stormed over to the woman who'd been about to stab Dean, grabbing her knife. "So whether you want to think on your way back to the house or not, I'm going. _Now_."

Dean opened his mouth to say something when he sniffed the air, frowning. "Is that...smoke?"

Lois' hazel orbs widened in horror as she turned towards the house, and sure enough, the sky was tinting orange. "The house..."

Their gazes met for a split second before both took off in the direction of the house, pushing through cornstalks, not needing to see where they were going to know their direction, the smoke and cries of horror their guide.

Finally they made it out of the seemingly never-ending cornfield and skidded to a stop as before them the Hathaway house was ablaze, Hathaway's followers circled around the house crying, not even noticing Lois and Dean were amongst them. Instead their gaze was up on the roof, and Dean followed their gazes, his light hazel eyes widening in horror, knowing when Lois realized as well because she screamed out her cousin's name.

In the middle of the inferno, dressed in an old fashioned white gown, Chloe was on the roof of the house, backing away from Preacher Hathaway.

"THE LORD'S WORK WILL BE DONE!" The preacher in teenaged form could be heard yelling at her, his nose twisted awkwardly and bleeding profusely.

It looked a lot like it'd been broken.

Good girl.

The male took a step towards Chloe...and the roof broke beneath him, his body collapsing into the burning inferno beneath him, his screams and the scent of burning flesh filling the air.

"NO!" The waitress fell to her knees, sobbing.

The others mourned tearfully, gazing at the fire.

"What ya'll crying for?" The only one crying wanted to know. "The fire only destroys his body, not his spirit."

"CHLOE! JUMP!" Lois hurried towards the house, as close as the burning heat would allow. "YOU'VE GOT TO JUMP!"

Dean was by her side in seconds, passing her his pitchfork as he raised his hands up. "Come on! I'll catch you!"

The blonde was obviously terrified, her face conveying it vividly, but she nodded and hurried to the side of the roof, jumping off with a scream.

Dean caught her, grunting as her weight hit him at full blast, but he somehow managed to remain standing despite his abused sides burning in pain like a motherfucker. "Are you okay?"

She nodded silently as he lowered her to the ground. "We need to get out of here."

Lois passed Dean his pitchfork and kept her knife aimed at the people who weren't even looking at them but at the flames. "Morning's in less than two hours. We can make it."

Dean nodded and gave the girls a little push towards the cornfield, hurrying behind them and covering their back despite the fact that the people only had eyes for the burning house.

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The closely approaching sunrise was betrayed by the many different colors streaking the early morning sky, giving the three still racing through the cornfield a surge of hope that they were going to make it out of there. A couple of times one of them would get their feet stuck as they'd go through the dry-rot roof of the shelter underneath their feet, but the other two would help the fallen one out and without missing a beat they'd continue running. They were tired and thirsty and scared but adrenaline was high and gave them the fortitude they hadn't known they'd had to run nonstop.

They'd raced by crosses with "scarecrows" on them, knowing that the faces beneath these masks were bones, muscles, or rotting flesh depending on the stages of decomposition the corpses of the town's victims were in. Their stomachs rolled in their bodies at the stench of rotting flesh, of _death_, that surrounded them, and yet the trio didn't stop, wouldn't let themselves be distracted from their goal of escape.

The sound of a highway in the distance caused them to cry out in happiness and gave them the energy they needed to push on.

But then the cornstalks rustled around them and the preacher's congregation appeared in a perfect circle around them, almost as if having trailed them for a while and waiting for the height of their hope to be reached so they could crush it.

Dean drew the girls behind him protectively, and while a part of Lois wanted to point out the fact that their being _surrounded_ meant that being pushed behind him wasn't actually protecting them, the fact that he was doing his best to keep her and Chloe safe touched her.

One of the members, a guy around Dean's age yet lacking his good looks, stepped forwards, holding his hand out. "It's time to return home."

"Take one step closer and I'll _kill_ you." Dean promised, tightening his hold on the pitchfork.

"Chloe, _run_." Lois whispered, her grip on her knife so tight her knuckles were white.

"I'm not leaving you." Chloe hissed back, reaching down to grab a rock and raise it high.

"Run!" Lois snapped at her.

"No!" Chloe snapped right back at her, showing more spirit than she'd had since the attack, her eyes no longer blank but burning with green fire. "I am _not_ leaving you! Or Dean!"

Suddenly the cornstalks around them came alive, wrapping around Dean's and Lois' arms and feet. The cornstalks tightened their hold, forcing the two young adults to drop their weapons in pain as their bodies were stretched in an "X" pattern. They were horribly vulnerable to the murderous mob around them.

The possessed still held his hand out towards Chloe.

"Chloe _run_ dammit!" Lois screamed, struggling in vain against her supernatural binds.

"T-they go free." Chloe stammered, standing her ground, holding the rock tightly in her hand.

"Goddamit! Listen to your cousin and run!" Dean sounded just as desperate, struggled just as unsuccessfully.

The blonde ignored them, raising her gaze to meet the preacher's. "You don't want to do this. I'm obviously not the person you think I am, none of us are." She raised her chin high, taking in a deep breath. "The last time you tried to force me you ended up knocking over the candles and lighting your sanctuary on fire. Don't you think that that's a sign right there from god that I'm not the one you should be born from?"

A couple of the congregation whispered to themselves at this.

And then Lois realized what her cousin was doing.

She was stalling.

For dawn.

Already behind the blonde the sky was starting the lighten.

The preacher shook his head, smile still in place. "You were _prophesied_-."

"And yet I _wasn't_. According to you _Lois_ was, you even knew her _name_, and then you got all holier than thou when you realized she's not a virgin. You decided to forget all about your prophecy and go for the second option!" Chloe snapped, tightening her hold on the rock. "All of you thought it was Lois! You kept watching her the second she came to town. Why? Because _she_ was the one prophesied!"

"It was wrong." Someone defended their actions.

"Well, if the prophecy of Lois Lane being the mother of the preacher's rebirth was wrong...doesn't that make _any_ of you wonder what _other_ prophecies might be wrong?" Chloe threw her hands in the air in exasperation.

A couple of the townspeople turned to each other.

"I might not know my bible like dear Preacher Hathaway, but when a prophet is proven wrong he's usually referred to as a _false_ prophet." Chloe hissed.

"Still your tongue child!" The preacher hissed, storming towards her and backhanding her hard, sending the girl to the ground. "You will _never_ utter such sinful words _again_."

"Don't fucking touch her!" Lois screamed as Dean struggled against his hold.

Seated on the ground, Chloe wiped at her bleeding lip, before looking up at Preacher Hathaway. "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves..." She sneered. "I still have your bible verses in my head from your little visit."

A couple of the congregation were beginning to whisper amongst themselves.

"But she bears the mark on her." One could be heard saying.

Chloe turned towards the woman who'd said that, eyes narrowing as she yanked at the neck of her nightgown, pulling it so that the marked skin was exposed. "You mean this?"

"The mark of our savior!" A man yelled.

Chloe turned her glare on him. "Unless your savior is the _devil_ then I doubt this is his mark."

Silence fell on the group.

"Aw, I thought you all were versed in christian symbols. Because this? This isn't one." She slowly stood, turning around the circle, showing the group her scars. "This is an _inverted_ cross, _satan's_ sign."

Gasps of horror could be heard.

"Yeah, and this wasn't the act of god marking me to be _raped_ by my _ancestor_ so he could get a toe into this world again." Chloe snapped, fury causing her chest to rise and fall harshly. "This was the act of a sick, _evil_ person."

Lois gulped, hearing her own words in the blonde's lips.

"I used to think the devil had something to do with this, that if I could prove his existence that I could somehow understand some deeper meaning to what happened to me. But with all of this _shit_ tonight I've realized that there are just some genuinely _evil _sons of bitches out in this world who are _completely human_." Her furious gaze seemed to scathe the people, a couple of them taking a step or two back. "It wasn't because of the devil that I was marked, that I nearly _died_. The reason why I was attacked so viciously is because my mother was held captive and repeatedly raped fourteen years ago so viciously, so _brutally_, that it drove her insane. She couldn't believe that the person who could have done _so much_ evil could be human, so to shield her mind she told herself it was the devil who'd brutalized her for weeks." Her hands were beginning to shake, her voice to wobble. "She tried to love me, but who can love the devil's child?"

Dean went still, stopping his struggling, pale and horrified as he stared at her.

Lois was crying, hating being tied up, being unable to hug her cousin and hold her dear.

Hated that her cousin _knew_ and no one else had known she had.

Why hadn't they contemplated the possibility of Chloe investigating and discovering the truth about her birth?

"When I was six years old the man who's raised me like a father came home to find my bathroom full of my blood and my hands scrubbed raw." Chloe took in a deep breath. "That was the first time that he realized that my mother put me through "cleansings" to try and take the evil out of me. She'd hold me under the water in the bathtub for minutes sometimes, trying to baptize me daily, she'd scrub me raw to get the evil that was seeping out of my pores..." tears were beginning to shine green orbs, her voice breaking. "She went away after that, and I didn't know that she'd been locked up in an insane ward until the day she broke out to kill me. And why did she want me dead? It was because supposedly when I became of age I'd be damned and destined to be the devil's tool, and she was going to save me from the devil who, in her eyes, was my father." She shook her head in disgust. "Thing is, my father's human. I know because I've visited him in prison."

Lois' eyes widened in horror.

_What_?

"He's apparently a statistic, a born again christian." Chloe laughed darkly, shaking her head. "In jail he 'found god'. Funny. I didn't know god was missing." She slowly stood, gazing into the Preacher's eyes. "He asked me to forgive him, you know. He hadn't done anything to me, but he begged me to forgive him. I don't know if christianity is like alcoholics anonymous in which you have to 'make amends' or what-I've been raised agnostic you see-but he seemed really genuine and I forgave him. I told him I'd never come to see him again, I'd never think of him again, but for what it was worth to _him_...I forgave him."

"And that shows the love of god within you." The preacher announced.

"Love." She laughed, the sound ugly. "On both sides of my bloodline I'm the descendant of _psychopaths_, two men who did _horrible_ things to innocent people and _got off_ on it. And yet when I met both of you all you talk about is god and love. What do _either_ of you know about love?"

Preacher Hathaway took a step back, frowning.

Lois could feel the cornstalks' hold on her loosening slightly.

Suddenly Dean freed his foot and kicked up the pitchfork from where it'd been on the ground next to him, catching it in his hand and grunting as he threw it at Preacher Hathaway's body from behind, the pitchfork imbedding itself into the man's back, driving him to his knees as the group cried out.

"I bet you didn't prophecy _that _did ya?" Dean freed himself as the cornstalks' grip on them loosened immediately as Hathaway knelt on the ground. The hunter reached for Lois' fallen knife and began to slice the cornstalks still holding her just as the first rays of sunrise colored the sky.

"You will burn in hell for this!" Preacher Hathaway slowly, painfully rose to his feet, reaching behind him to try and tug the prongs out of his skin.

Suddenly crows cawing all around them caused everyone to look up in the sky to see a large black cloud of birds descending towards them.

"This is a sign!" One of the congregation cried.

"How beautiful!" The waitress gasped.

And then the birds descended on them with fury, and the gasps turned to screams as the birds attacked viciously, pecking at eyes and covering the congregation with hunger.

Dean threw himself down on Lois, shielding her body with his wings flapped all around them.

Lois tried to fight him for a couple of minutes, tried to get to Chloe, but Dean kept her pinned underneath him and she couldn't move no matter how hard she tried. Panic and nausea built in her throat, making it hard to swallow as she tried to distinguish her cousin's voice amongst the screams. She couldn't see Chloe, the black so thick, and she couldn't hear her. Images of her cousin's body pecked to death flashed before her eyes, taunting and tormenting her as tears silently made their way down the sides of her face as she stopped fighting, knowing that it was all too late.

Why had Dean saved her?

Why couldn't he have tried to save Chloe instead?

And then, as guilt and horror built within her soul, Lois' hazel eyes made out her cousin through the black feathers. The teenager was kneeling on the ground in the middle of all the chaos and death, staring ahead of her fixedly at something Lois just couldn't see.

All around her crows devoured the congregation, blood and skin covering the ground.

Black feathers littered the ground.

It was only now that her guilt and horror and fear were beginning to subside that Lois realized that while the crows' wings would brush against them from time to time as they attacked the congregation, that the birds weren't attacking her or Dean. And despite being in the middle of most of the fury, Chloe was untouched as well. And now that she thought about it, Lois realized that despite the fact that Preacher Hathaway had been not four steps away from her cousin a minute or so ago, he was now completely disappeared from sight.

Where was he?

It was then that Lois realized, black wings flapping everywhere, that there was a hole in the ground in front of where Chloe was kneeling, and a column of crows were diving inside with dark determination.

Chloe continued staring ahead of her, eyes fixed on something, before her lips moved in what seemed like a "thank you" but Lois couldn't figure out who her cousin would be thanking in a moment like this.

Black wings then obscured all view of Chloe once more.

But she knew that the was fine, so Lois could relax, turning her gaze towards Dean, finally letting herself register the fact that he was on top of her.

The brunette took in his scent, a little miffed at the fact that he didn't stink of perspiration despite their hours running. She'd always thought of herself as in top physical form, but he proved that he was obviously in better form than she was. She both admired and resented that in a man.

"See something you like?" He quipped again, laughter in his voice.

"You wish." She scoffed before realizing that there was silence.

No screams.

No batting of wings.

No cawing.

Nothing.

Dean seemed to realize it as well because he pulled away from her and sat up on his knees, eyes wide.

Lois leaned up with her weight on her elbows, staring at the massacre around her.

Her gaze then went to Chloe, who was standing and shielding her gaze from the glare as she watched the dark flock of crows flying away. Her white dress was torn, blood covered, and there were black feathers caught in her messy hair.

And then she turned towards Lois and grinned brightly, eyes twinkling. "Did you see that coming?"

Lois let out a breath of relief as she smiled back. "Not really."

"Me neither." Chloe turned back to gaze at the crows. "It was an _awesome_ deus ex machina though. Poetic, really."

"Deus ex machina?" Dean's question was quoted in amusement as he slowly stood.

"I've gotten used to the fact that she knows words I never will." Lois chuckled as she accepted Dean's hand and help to stand, brushing herself off.

Dean shook his head, clearly amused with them, before going to one of the bodies and rummaging through his pocket, grinning when he found something and pulled out a phone. "Yes! Now, work."

Lois raised an eyebrow at him.

He could at _least_ have the decency to be slightly more awed by the fact that _crows_ had saved them!

CROWS!

What exactly was his life like hunting the supernatural that this sort of thing didn't phase him for more than a couple of seconds?

Once again she was impressed and resentful.

"Dad. It's me, Dean." Dean cleared his throat, hand rubbing the back of his head as he began to tell his father all that'd happened to them.

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**TBC**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Supernatural...or Hallowed Ground.**

Chapter 7/7

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"Crows."

That seemed to be the word of the day.

"_Crows_."

Then again, considering that the crows hadn't only killed the people in the cornfield but the whole friggin _town_...well...it deserved to be repeated a couple of times, right?

At least John Winchester and his hunting buddy Caleb, who'd recieved Dean's earlier message and had already been on the way, seemed more dumbfounded with the whole event than Dean had when they arrived hours later. They'd decided to leave the bodies as they were, since the way things were it was obvious that crows had gone batshit crazy and massacred everyone...and that made people less suspicious of, well, other people. But Dean's car (which he was fussing over as if it were alive) had been turned back so that it was right side-up, and hooked up to his father's truck. There was no way that they could leave it there considering all the weapons and such that were hidden under the false bottom.

The girls' mustang was found on accident when the group brought John and Caleb to what remained of Hathaway's home, the mustang parked in the farmhouse not fifty paces away from the house.

It was here where the group convened before their final parting of ways.

Lois had noticed the way John Winchester had stopped short when he'd first seen her cousin in her white gown, messed hair, shoeless state, and the brunette couldn't shake the pale horror on his face when he had. It was almost as if he'd seen a ghost, and even now he couldn't look at Chloe. It annoyed Lois somewhat, had her wary. But this was Dean's dad and for better or worse she trusted Dean, so she was going to trust John as well.

Chloe didn't seem to mind John's behavior, instead half inside of the car going through her bags for something to change into. It wasn't surprising that the girl wanted to get out of what Lois was calling the "Virgin Sacrifice" dress.

"Was what she said about her mother and father true?" Dean asked softly, coming to stand next to Lois, eyes on where Chloe was making a face at a shirt she surveyed. "Or was it just her way of stalling?"

"I wish she was that good of a storyteller." Lois sighed before turning her head towards Dean. "The devil can't have children, right?"

Dean frowned. "I don't even know if the devil _exists_ to be truthful. No one does. I mean, we know that there are demons but there are few amongst us and those we find are exorcised right back down. We really don't have tea and biscuits with them, you know? But from what we've gathered over the years, and with the knowledge of hunters before us...well...it's a unanimous agreement that while a demon can possess someone if they impregnated someone else while in that body the baby would be completely human and the child of the human parents. Demons can't have children. It's just not genetically possible."

Relief she didn't want to acknowledge raced through her as she nodded. "Good."

Caleb gazed at the cornfields. "We should burn it all. Salt the whole place first though. Just in case."

Lois frowned as she turned towards him. "But according to the Bible in the church they said that burning the body only released his spirit from his flesh. It's what they did with his original body, and they buried his ashes in the ground of these cornfields. Fire doesn't destroy him."

"Obviously he has another anchor, other than his body or house." John Winchester came towards them, face dark and determined. "What else do you know would be of importance to him? What could he have held dear?"

"This whole place was important to him. The cornfields are where he killed his victims, the church is the second thing he built after his house, the Bible of theirs was has all sorts of visions of his written down." Lois ran her fingers through her knotted hair with a wince. "I don't know what the tie could be."

"This could get tricker than we thought." John frowned darker. "We need to figure this out and get it done before someone realizes this town's massacred and call the sheriff of Liberty to come down and investigate."

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In the underground shelter, the pecked body of the man Preacher Hathaway had possessed lay mutilated, almost dead.

Almost.

The twitching of his fingers proved that there was still life in that corpse.

"You know, you and your minions stopped being amusing a _long_ time ago, but I've been too busy to step in. Plus, I wanted to see if you'd actually prove useful for once." A voice declared as a man emerged from the darkness, the light shining from the hole above lighting his handsome features. "But even _now_ you proved to be not worth the effort."

Those fingers continued to twitch.

"Not only that, but you disobeyed me. I gave you _the cousin_, tall dark and beautiful, just the way you like 'em. She was the one who was yours! I gave you her _name_ and yet you got _greedy_. You wanted the little young one instead." He kicked at the head of the body at his feet. "You sick pervert."

A groan.

"There's a reason your daughter went and told the people of Liberty about what you did...didn't know how to keep it in your pants when around little girls, did you?" Scratching his forehead, the man sighed as he went back to the wall and leaned against it, shadowed once more. "You let me down, and not only that, but you endangered something bigger than your plans of grandeur and dominion over this shitty town."

A fingernail clawed into the ground.

"Do you _know_ how long I've been working this? Do ya?" A growl escaped his lips. "Johnny boy ruined it for me once, and poor little Mary died because of it." He shook his head. "I didn't want Mary to die...I liked her. She had _spirit_, you know? And her lips? Sweet as honey." His own lips curved in some amusement. "I have to say though, witnessing John freak out when he first saw the girl was golden. Loose blonde hair, wide green eyes, long white gown...reminded him of the last time he saw his wife. She looks like her, too. And she has her spirit." He tilted his head to the side. "I thought her mother might have broken her...but obviously it just needed a little _shock_ to return...which I admit I can thank you for. There. You've served _some_ purpose."

A whimper.

"But you went against me, you would have ruined _everything_ if I hadn't been manipulating things subtly so Dean wouldn't realize that there was a demon in his midst." The demon's eyes flashed golden as he drew nearer. "Consider our contract terminated." He sneered. "Enjoy your stay in hell."

And with that he stomped on the body's neck, breaking it, watching as the spirit within burnt itself out like explosions.

Smirking, Azazel gazed up out of the hole in the roof.

"Let it allllllllllllll burn."

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Hope was on fire.

Not only was the whole town on fire, but every single cornfield surrounding it had gone up in flames almost simultaneously.

They'd barely had the time to jump into their vehicles and race out of their before they were trapped in the infernal blaze.

In the rush Dean had had to get into their car, and they followed his father and Caleb out into the highway, staying behind the towed Impala.

"What does this mean?" Lois asked, her grip on the steering wheel tightening as she sent her passenger a sideways glance. "Is it over?"

"I have no idea." Dean growled as he ran his hand over his hair. "Nothing about his hunt has been _normal_."

Considering Chloe was so silent in the back, Lois sent her cousin a look in the rearview mirror, finding the blonde staring out of the back windshield at the huge column of smoke that was Hope burning. She hadn't been able to change out of the white gown, and the bottom of her feet were filthy and cut. Lois was going to have to tend to them once they reached a motel that was far, far away from Hope.

"We should probably just keep driving and putting as much distance between us and Hope, it's what dad's going to do now that we're on the highway." Dean sighed, leaning hard against the seat. "We don't need anyone connecting us to whatever happened back there."

"I'm just worried that this fire is just freeing him and giving him a bigger access to the world." Lois admitted, feeling silly and yet needing to have those fears addressed.

"Once the heat dies down dad, Caleb and I will return, probably with a few other hunters too considering none of us have a clue what the hell we're dealing with." Dean promised, turning his head towards her. "We'll finish it off though, if it isn't dead already. I promise."

She turned her gaze towards him and the soft smile she sent him was genuine. "Thank you."

His smile was handsome as he winked, before turning slightly in the seat to look back at Chloe. "How you feeling?"

Chloe turned towards him and sat down properly. "Would it be weird if I said I feel better than when we first arrived in Hope?"

He considered her a moment before clearing his throat. "I think there might have been some shit you needed to get off of your chest."

Her green gaze went to the window. "I guess."

He seemed to be debating something with himself before turning back to the front and staring at the back of his Impala. "So where to next ladies?"

Lois followed behind John when he changed lanes. "Probably going back to Smallville."

"Kansas?" Dean asked in surprise.

"Yeah, we're both born in Metropolis, and Chloe now lives in Smallville with her father." Lois nodded. "I'm enrolling in MetU."

"I'm from Kansas too...Lawrence."

"That's only a couple hours away." Lois smiled, amused by this coincidence. "Our mothers are from Lawrence."

Dean's eyes narrowed at that. "You don't say..."

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"Don't you think razing the entire place was a little...excessive?" Meg asked in amusement as she joined her father's side hours later, gazing across the road to where the group of hunters and two civilians had breakfast at a diner far, far away from Hope. The young demon was wearing the blonde meatsuit she enjoyed so much given the fact that they both had the same first name, running her hand over her pixie cut in thought.

"I had some steam to blow." Azazel shrugged, watching the family he liked to torment the most, although Sammy was missing of course. He knew the boy was having problems acclimatizing to his new life, but knew that the boy would be fine-hadn't he sent his agents to make sure of it?

"So what does this mean?" Meg wanted to know, folding her arms over her chest as she watched the cousins sharing a grin. "Lois Lane was supposed to be trapped in Hope and the mother of Hathaway's new host. She was supposed to be out of the way. Obviously that didn't work out."

"Obviously." Azazel wondered at his daughter's love of pointing out the obvious.

"There's sparks of attraction between her and Deanie boy." There Meg went again. "That could be…inconvenient."

"Winchester men have a way of getting in the way of my plans, that's true." Rubbing his chin as he watched Lois flip off Dean, who snickered at her, the demon thought for a moment. "But I doubt John's going to give them any time for it to be anything but a fleeting spark."

"True." Meg had to agree, nodding her head as her gaze went to where, on the same table, John and Caleb were already going over the particulars of their next hunt. "We probably have nothing to worry about on that front."

"I agree." Eyes flashing yellow, Azazel watched as Chloe's green gaze went to him, as she had during the crow attack.

"How-?" Meg frowned, eyes narrowing.

Chloe smiled at them before turning her attention to something Lois was saying to Dean which had the young hunter sputtering in indignation, the young blonde giggling.

"By sending the crows to save them, I seem to have won some degree of trust." Azazel contemplated that, lips tilting in a smirk. "On top of everything, this whole night might not have been a _total_ loss."

"I heard." Meg turned towards him, clapping slightly, grin evil. "I doubt Deanie boy would be laughing so amused right now if he knew that the little blonde in there saved his life by making a deal with his mother's killer."

Azazel frowned, not liking the memory of Mary's death being his fault.

He'd truly liked her.

"I gave the girl a choice, told her that I'd give her whatever she wanted. I figured she'd do the obvious thing and ask for her safe escape from Hope." Azazel tilted his head to the side. "A part of me wanted her to wish for the deaths of the whole town-imagine how that could have corrupted her soul."

"But instead she wished for the nearly dead Winchester to live." Meg rolled her eyes. "It's so sweet and noble it sickens me."

Azazel nodded in agreement. "But it worked out in my favor. It didn't matter what she wanted in return...it was her being bound to the term of my deal what was really important."

Meg smirked as she looped her arm around his and leaned into him. "No one will know what hit them."

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**The end?**


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